


OVERLORD Side Adventures Vol.1

by DDDGGG



Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 02:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 61,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21172121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DDDGGG/pseuds/DDDGGG
Summary: Takes place 8 months after the events of Vol.13. Some AU elements but I try to stay true to canon events. The story follows Emperor Jircniv, Aura and Mare through fun adventures. Light and fun reading.





	1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE:: Powwow

( pow·wow )

1\. 1.a North American Indian ceremony involving feasting, singing, and dancing.

2\. 2.a conference or meeting for discussion, especially among friends or colleagues

Boring, pointless, dull... the once sole ruler of his beloved Baharuth empire Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix, looked uninterestedly at the parchment before him. It was the weekly update of the goings-on given to him by his secretary Loune Vermillion. Loune had developed a habit of sitting quietly while Jircniv read his reports, every now and again he would make a subtle movement, or silently clear his throat, should he catch The Emperor looking over in his direction his face would turn attentive with a slight hint of a smile that seemed to beg the questions of "Yes? Is there anything I can help with?" Jircniv was certain that if this man were a demihuman with a tail, it would be wagging underneath his well-made coat.

"No, it's nothing," Jircniv said with a polite nod, he then thought for a second as he set the well made but ultimately pointless document down on his desk.

"Loune, about His return..." Jircniv said, putting on a slightly serious frown.

"Yes, His Maj... Lord Ainz Ooal Gown has indeed returned to his seat of power after that, silly "death business" over in the Holy Kingdom."

"Indeed, did we ever find out the jester who penned such an elaborate joke?" Jircniv asked chuckling to himself at a Bard's joke he'd overheard pretending to be a news crier "LOCAL NEWS IN THE HOLY KINGDOM, DEAD MAN BECOMES EVEN MORE DEAD!"

"It would seem some believe that it was The Sorcerer King himself trying his hand at comedy," Loune said with a smirk. Jircniv smiled and shook his head, he could only imagine how the news of The Sorcerer King's death must have affected some of the more... gullible rulers and nobles of the surrounding areas.

Jircniv let out an exaggerated sigh and rotated his neck as well as his shoulders and waist, he had been sitting for far too long.

"Okay, that's it!" Time to abuse some of that Emperor's power he'd spilled so much blood to have.

"I'm done for now... I would like some personal time." Jircniv stated loud enough for his attending maid to also hear. After some exiting formalities the two were gone and Jircniv sat in his chair alone for the first time since he woke this morning next to that woman... he smiled on how he didn't consider her company... just a person who was around when it suited him, and it suited him more and more as of late.

After some brief contemplation, The Emperor of The Baharuth Empire stood up briskly and arched his back and winced as a rippled of pops and cracks ran down his pampered but still overworked back.

"Maybe I should start the nights drinking a little earlier than usual tonight..." He thought to himself. Just as he was making his way over to the magic box that would never turn warm no matter the surrounding temperature. Suddenly, a child's voice rang out in his head, he was startled at first but quickly understood that this was the magic spell [MESSAGE] that his former mentor Fluder Paradyne was always so adamant about not using.

"H...hello? Am I, um... is this Emperor Jircniv?" The somehow quiet voice said, even though it was coming directly from his head. Jircniv instinctively frowned at the informal way this child had addressed him, but as he was positive this was someone from Nazarick, he simply cleared his throat (for which he did not know why) then, mentally, spoke back to the young voice.

"Yes, you are addressing His Majesty Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix." He Said in his mind, passively-aggressively reminding this person, who he had a good idea who it was, how she really should have been addressing him.

"Mmm good." The innocent voice said before continuing on...

"Lord Ainz would...His Majesty The Sorcerer King Lord Ainz Ooal Gown..."Jircniv could hear the pride in the girl's voice as she sang out her lord's name in his head.

"...would like to know if you are free for a little... pa...poowow..." The voice turned from pride and admiration to that of one of uncertainty and nervousness.

"A poo wow?" Jircniv blinked at the odd term. This wasn't the first time someone from that damnable nation had casually used a term he was unfamiliar with.

"Mmm no... pow...powow... Oh! A POWWOW!" The girlish voice cried out as he, presumably remembered, the odd term he was quested in relaying.

" 'A kind of informal meeting of like-minded people for the purposes of prolonged joy and relationships with one another!' " Mare said in an almost robotic tone like he was quoting something or someone word for word.

"Hmm well if His Majesty Lord Ainz Ooal Gown requests my presence, then please tell him I will begin preparations to head to E-Rantel immediately."

"N...No good, Lord Ainz has asked that I use [GATE] to bring you to The Great Tomb of Nazarick... or well, as close as my spell will allow it."

"Oh, so I will be by myself then?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, the thought of walking into a literal land of the dead, unescorted did not entirely sit well with him. Not that any escort he could muster would make even a shred of difference... but it would put his mind at ease somewhat... just as a child clutches for dear life at his beloved blanket night after night in order fend off the monsters and demon in their head.

Jircniv frowned. But what if that monster was real, what if that monster was so unimaginably scary that just to invoke it's ire in the least would surely mean the death of you and your whole family... no matter how many "magical blankets" you have in your possession.

"Yes, Lord Ainz has specifically requested that I only use [GATE] for your benefit, anyone else attempting to enter through the gate will be an assumed threat to His Majesty and will be dealt with accordingly!" The timid nature from before was all but gone, despite the child's age, Jircniv knew for a fact that the dark elf could very easily kill him and any would-be assassin before they even knew what was upon them.

"Very well... I... I am ready whenever you are." He said to the voice in his head and to nobody in his room. Embarrassingly he was so nervous that he had been speaking everything out loud for, who knows how long. He had expected some kind of reply, or affirmation that she had received his permission but there was nothing, maybe the effects of the spell had worn off.

He could not give it too much thought though because soon after the 'nonreply' a large black hole opened up in the middle of his room. He stared at it nervously for a few seconds. The image of a dragon perched low like a dog with its maw stretched opened, inviting him to walk to his death flashed across his mind before the realization that keeping Ainz Ooal Gown waiting, could prove to be so much more dangerous than some stupid dragon! So he swallowed the collecting saliva in his mouth adjusted his clothes in a fast attempt to look at presentable as possible, steeled his slightly waning resolve and stepped into the black unknown.

He was not sure what to expect... the last time he had come to The Tomb of Nazarick, every expectation he had held was blown away like so many ashes in the breeze, that now he just resigned himself to accept whatever mind-blowing spectacle he was about to lay eyes on was.

But what he walked into was nothing of the sorts. He was standing in the center of a well lit and well-decorated room. On the walls were beautifully painted portraits of... of well the most horrible of monsters! There were around 40 in all that lined the walls of the room. There was a Demihuman with the head of a goat, wearing a strange black hat and mask with a foreboding cloak wrapped around his lean body. Another portrait housed the image of a proud knight, dressed head to toe in gleaming plate armor the likes Jircniv could only hope to hear of in fairy tales of legend, as was the amazing weapon at the knight's side. His shoulder was wrapped in a beautiful red cloak that waved majestically behind him. Jircniv cocked his head, with the exception of the dark raven black color, this knight was the striking image of the hero of E-Rantel he had heard so much about, the adamantite level adventure, Sir Momon. The last picture he was able to glance at appeared to just be a flesh-colored pile of slime or goo... really compared to the previous two, this portrait was more gross than amazing.

His time of admiration of the pictures was cut short by the realization that there was someone standing right behind him. When he turned around he saw the owner of the disembodied voice he had just been conversing with. A young dark elf stood before him, it's eyes beamed with two different colors. Mare's golden hair was cut at his shoulders and he clutched a gnarled and ancient-looking staff in front of him. The creature that stood before him he knew all too well, he had once condemned his whole court to doom as a simple message with the help of her bright spirited sister, oh yeah... and a fucking DRAGON!

"W...Welcome to The Great Tomb of Nazarick!" The timid child yelped at a louder than normal volume. Despite the fact that this child... this meer little "girl" that had killed one of "The Four" during the 'message' completely by happenstance was showing signs of nervousness in his presence was very off-putting. How many ways could it kill him? How many skills were in this child's arsenal that could render this proud emperor into an all but quivering pile of useless goo. He pondered the unlikely event of what if...

"What if he were to jump on her with all his speed and might, bring her down and subdue her with one swift motion... what then?" Use the body of the unconscious "girl" as some kind of bargaining chip? What would he ask for? What had Ainz Ooal Gown really even taken from him that he would risk life and limb to get back? The question was just as preposterous as his actions would be. How would he escape? The answer was obvious, he'd just simply turn into a giant dragon himself, and fly away laughing!

A smile. It was all that he let escape as he indulged in this... ludacris fantasy. The smile seemed to put the little elf at ease by a bit as it's clutch on the staff he held seemed too lax a bit.

"Th...Thank you for accepting His Majesty's request and coming all the way here to talk with his greatness." Mare said with a smile that could melt the heart of the ice dragons he'd heard about, flying above The Sorcerer King territories.

"Not at all, um, where is His Majesty?" Jircniv asked looking around the massive, but a mostly empty room. Expect for the fourth or so paintings and places where a kind of offering could be made to them. Jircniv though that was a bit odd but in this place... oddities ruled supreme.

"Lord Ainz will be meeting with you soon for the... 'powwow'" Mare said with that same radiant smile.

"Ah well... okay then," Jircniv said as he readied himself to wait as long as necessary.

"Um... Lord Ainz asked me to, um, well keep you company until he is ready to see you." The elf said in a, now, hushed voice.

"You mean to keep an eye ON me." He mentally noted.

Jircniv nodded to the child to show that he understood. The two of them stood in awkward silence for a while. Jircniv was just getting used to the sound of his thumping heart growing more relaxed when the dark elf spoke or at least tried to speak.

"Did you say something?" Jircniv said directly to the elf, it's timid and mild nature, while soothing was slightly annoying to him as he knew... He knew what lurked beneath the skin of this "child".

"Um well... It's uh, it's just that it seems like Lord Ainz enjoys your company." Mare said with a smile. His blue and green eyes looking up with genuine respect.

"Does he now? That is a surprise to hear!" He was not lying, but he did not believe "her" for a second.

"I mean, well... Our two nations are kinda like, friends now... Right?" He asked looking up at Jircniv.

"Yes, that's one way of putting it, our nations are 'friends'" He said smiling back to Mare, his instinct to treat Mare like a "little girl" kept creeping up into him before he remembered the twisted looks on the faces of the people this child had sentenced to death without a second thought.

"Well, it's just that well..." He twisted the staff in his hands back and forth... he was clearly genuinely nervous. This aroused suspicion and interest in what he had to say in Jircniv.

"When we first met... even though it was an order..." He said looking slightly distraught. Jircniv suppressed the urge to frown, he was bringing up a still bitter memory.

"I um... I kinda killed a lot of people at your castle..." The elf said with an almost sad look on its face.

"Yeah...I mean, Yes, yes you did." It was all he could do but state the facts.

"Well um... I just mean, if... if I killed anyone you liked, uh, any of your friends...I'm, I'm sorry Mister Jircniv" She said almost looking like he was fighting back tears.

"Mister?"

"Well, you were just following orders... Nothing to be done about it right?" He said in a little cold voice. The beaming smile returned to Mare's face as he looked up at him.

"Really? You don't hate me?" Mare asked in atone that invoked the urge to get down and hug the young dark elf. Jircniv wondered if this was some kind of magic as well, how... nice he wanted to treat Mare, despite knowing he was more dangerous than any dragon he'd heard tales about.

"No, I don't hold onto any sore feelings about... Anything that has happened between our two nations." He said as he reaffirmed his message with a warm smile directed back to the "girl". He nodded and smiled back then returned to his 'waiting position'.

"Oh..." He let slip, he actually hadn't meant to say anything, but he just realized what kind of position he was in... he had a chance to talk, one on one... with the most receptive member of Ainzes inner council. The Elf looked up at him with a curious look.

"Uh... hey, um..."

"Mare Bello Fiore... you may call me Mare," He said with a voice as sweet as candy.

"Right, um...Mare, you are aware that My Empire still has, uh slaves right?" He looked at him then away, then back to him. Mare shrugged, seemingly disinterested with what The Emperor had just said.

"More to the point, we have elf slaves..." He waited for a response but he looked just as bored with what was said.

"Is that... does that rub you the wrong way at all?" He asked, he was generally curious, if this dark elf and her sister hated him for keeping elves slaves in his nation, he would do well to try to win them over, if nothing else, for just a way to keep Ainz pleased. The idea of betrayal was so far removed from his mind, this was genuine curiosity he was attempting to alleviate.

"No... After all, I have some elf slaves as well." Mare said so matter of factly it was a little chilly.

"WHA...What? R...Really?" He could not believe what he just heard. Mare looked up in the air and counted off on his slender fingers.

"Yes, three of them, Lord Ainz gave me the three elf slaves that were brought to us by those filthy rats that tried to dirty our home. Jircniv could hear the tone of revolt and disgust in Mare's voice. An all too familiar shiver ran down his spine. He shrugged again and said proudly.

"Not that I need them, I can do everything by myself that my sister can!" Mare said as he puffed out his chest in exaggerated pride. Jircniv nodded and smiled but then took notice of the ring on the "girls" slender finger. It was an amazing, sparkling gold band with decorations and a large red ruby crowning the top of the ring. His eyes must have bulged a bit because Mare took notice of him examining his ring. He held his hand up to display its grandeur, he was clearly very proud of it.

"Lord Ainz gave this to me!" He declared with so much pride and joy he half expected him to start weeping tears of joy.

"Well, you must be a devoted..."

"Wife? Her ring is on the bride's finger... Is she married to Ainz? Is he into such things?" He thought to himself but then he mentally clicked his tongue at his own ignorance, this child was an elf, and Ainz was an ageless undead,

"She is probably much older than I am" He reminded himself, and age is probably a literal nonfactor where the undead are concerned... who can live forever.

"...follower." He chose a safer word. But he might not have needed too at how furiously Mare blushed, he even put both hands up to cover his bright red face.

"I can only hope he sees me as such!" He said now breaking back out into that sunlit smile. If Mare had the body of a more mature "woman", Jircniv would find himself smitten by Mare's delightful nature. But as it was, it was like talking to a child at the park who trusted you more than anything, despite never even meeting you, total innocence.

"Emperor Jircniv?" A voice called out from behind a large wooden door before she made herself visible by stepping out from behind it.

"Sorry for the wait, but Lord Ainz will see you now." The unfamiliar but stunning blonde maid said as she motioned for him to enter. Jircniv slowly walked to where he was directed, the elf child did not move from its post and looked at him with curious but somehow still uninterested eyes.

Upon entering the room he saw the vision of death sitting behind a desk, his dark socketed eyes were as deep as the void of death if not for the burning coals... coals that tell the damned what lay at the bottom of the void was pain and suffering. And this, this vision of death and malice, was waving at him. In his paranoia Jircniv thought that maybe the Sorcerer King was casting a mighty spell to take control of his mind, but what would be the point in that when Jircniv knew that this King of Death and Darkness knew every move Jircniv would make before he himself did... yes indeed, mind control would be a complete waste of a good spell at this point, no, The Grim Reaper of Souls, the one who, on Jircnivs behest, killed around 180,000 people with a single spell was just waving 'hello'.

Jircniv started the motion to drop to his knee out of respect but Ainz raised a hand to halt that motion and instead stretched out his palm to a vacant chair sitting opposite of himself at the desk.

"Have a seat." He said warmly, but in the coldest way possible. Jircniv did as instructed and sat down.

"Is there anything I can offer you?" He issued now toward the blonde maid who had let him in.

Jircniv initial response was to turn down his kind offer out of respect.

However...

"Ah yes... last time I was here, your maids brought me and my men a drink..." Jircniv said in a voice far too timid befitting that of an emperor, so he cleared his throat before continuing on and deepened his voice just a tad and spoke with more focus.

"...I don't know its name... But I've not been able to have any of my chefs... Or ANY chefs in my domain even come close to replicating it." With a smirk, Jircniv shook his head.

"A chance to drink that again... No person of culture would ever pass that up!" The Bloody Emperor boasted. Ainz clapped his hands out of recognition but also to get his maid to acknowledge and fulfill their guests' requests.

"Honestly, I have much better things that I could offer you..." The skulled magic caster boasted.

"I don't doubt that in the least, but if you were to give me something even better than that, I doubt I'd ever want to leave your wonderful Kingdom!" This was mostly the truth.

"Indeed, so... On to why I have called you here." Ainz said as he placed both his skeletal hands on the table in front of him. Jircniv looked directly at The Sorcerer King to show he had his undivided attention.

"Rune crafted weapons," Ainz said bluntly. Jircniv blinked for a second as he processed what he had just heard.

"You've heard of them no doubt?" Ainz motioned through the air and pulled out a dagger from an unseen place, he turned the handle toward Jircniv in a friendly manner and waited for him to take the dagger. The Emperor reached out slowly to receive it, peered at it with interest then flipped it over a few times. Jircniv was by no means a weapon expert, yet he understood quality, and this was... this was quality personified, the level of skill and craftsmanship that must have gone into this blade made Jircniv remind himself of the wonders that The Sorcerer Kingdom could produce, quite literally, from thin air. He was so mesmerized by this exquisite blade he almost forgot to answer his gracious host's question.

"Yes... I mean, I have, but nothing I've heard of comes close to a work of this beauty and, I assume, power." He said still flipping the knife over and over as if this somehow would turn him into a weapon expert in his own right.

"Beauty, no doubt, but power? No, I'm afraid that the dagger is only a showpiece, the magical effect tied to this only lets you create an illusion of the last person that the dagger wounded.

"Oh? Is that it?" Jircniv spat in his head. Having an item like that... The potentials would be limitless the things a clever mind could do!

"Mmhmm, but nonetheless, I have been trying to revive this lost art...

"Why?" Jircniv said in his head, the question was too disrespectful to convey, so he waited for The Sorcerer King to finish his thought.

"... as a way to bring about cheaper enchanted weapons to the forefront so our new adventures have a real fighting chance out there!" Ainz exclaimed as he rose his arms into the air slightly before settling them back down onto the table, it was almost as some unseen force had purged some kind of emotion form this unfeeling God of Death, but Jircniv was sure he was just imagining things. Jircniv waited still in silence, waiting for anything else Ainz might have to say. But when The Death King sat there quietly and expectantly looking at him Jircniv decided it was his turn to talk.

"As expected, his majesty is always concerned about the welfare of his people!" The Emperor said as he, respectfully, slid the dagger back over to Ainz Ooal Gown. It was the nicest thing he could muster, bordering on the edge of brown-nosing. Still, Ainz seemed a tad disappointed in Jircnivs answer.

"And your people!". The Overlord said nodding slightly.

"My people?" Jircniv blinked.

"YES! I want all my allies to take advantage of my new Rune crafting techniques!" Ainz said spreading out his arms.

"Okay fine but still... WHY?!" Jircniv once again asked himself.

"Surely... You've heard how effective they were recently in taking back lands belonging to the Holy Kingdom from the vile demon Jabaloth and his demihuman hoard?" Ainz said nodding the whole time.

"I uh, I heard that 'His Majesty' is the reason the Holy Kingdom was able to beat back the demon menace." Jircniv answered truthfully, after the "news" of Ainzes death it wasn't too long till the news said he had returned and that he had crushed the demon lord in single combat.

"To be sure, but there haven't been any tales of how the humans held out by themselves while I was on the mend from the first clash with Jabaloth?"

Jircniv shook his head slowly.

"Maybe like... How some archer using a rune crafted bow was able to strike fear into The Demon Lord?" Ainz asked hopefully leaning in a bit.

Jircniv once again repeated the same motion with his head.

"I am sorry, but I have heard no such tales you are describing." The Human Emperor said as he accepted the refreshing drink from the newly returned maid. With no hesitation, he brought the glass to his mouth and took his first drink. Oh, how wonderful this taste was, he missed it every time he drank some, inferior, sweet beverage. It was just as wonderful as before, and the rush of energy he felt made him think he could read Loune Vermillion's stupid boring reports all day long. Making a point to savor every gulp he was shocked to see that the glass he held was somehow empty, was this a trick? Some sort of prank played by The Sorcerer King? No...He had simply drunk it all, so fast. Yes, being able to enjoy this drink a second time was more than enough reason to come here once again.

"So?" Ainz asked, snapping The Emperor out of his bliss and back to the room seated in front of death. Jircniv realized how he had let his mind slip and now The Sorcerer King was expecting an answer about something.

"Uh... I'm sorry..." Jircniv began.

"Rune weapons, I was enlightening you to their benefits," Ainz said clapping his hands, as an order for the maid to take the empty glass from his guest.

"Ah yes! You did say you were trying to, revive them or something like that? We had to deal with the dwarves way back when, and they would provide the elites of this country with the gear of that nature, though nothing even close as to the dagger you showed me!"

"Well it still needs some work, as all great things do, but I'm sure they will prove to be a boon to those adventures that wish to purchase or even lend them from me!" Ainz said nodding to himself.

"Lending out enchanted gear to improve survival and success rates of adventures...that's... that's actually a really good idea!" Jircniv said as the cogs and gears of his own mind spun, thinking about how to further elevate his Empires adventuring capabilities. The Empire had always taken a back seat to the level of power and talent that it's adventuring guild would churn out compared to its neighboring countries, something like a lending program like that could prove to be a solid investment in the future stock of all adventures! As expected! The being with a mind as sharp as any sword and deep as any lake casually mentions a way that could revitalize the adventuring mood within the empire.

"Yes... YES! That could really work! Lending out weapons to people who can't afford them, there would be fewer deaths, more people might give adventuring a try if they know they won't be walking out into the wild with poor weapons and armor!" Jircniv smiled, he would definitely give this some real thought when he had the luxury of time and planning.

"Yeah...But...But RUNE CRAFTING! That's good! A lost art, feared by demons!" Ainz clenched his fist in an exaggerated display of understanding.

"Eh? Oh...Oh yeah, rune crafting... without a doubt, there could be something there someday." Jircniv said still wondering how much gold he would have to invest into an endeavor like the lending program. For some reason, The Sorcerer King seemed disappointed like the wind had been taken from his sails.

"So anyway, thanks for coming and discussing the future of our great nations," Ainz said in an almost hurried manner. Jircniv wasn't sure what he had done or said but the energy in the room had definitely changed.

"Well yes, I am of course happy to receive a personal audience with The Sorcerer King, and that he would deem me worthy of such a brainstorming session!" Jircniv said with a broad smile, trying to inject some pleasantness back into the mood of the room.

"Well yes, anyway thank you for giving me an hour of your time, I'll ask Mare to send you back to your room when you leave here," Ainz said as he stood up, and motioned to the door. Jircniv stood up when it was acceptable to do so, gave Ainz Ooal Gown a real bow of respect then gave his leave as he was instructed.

Upon entering the room with the portraits hanging everywhere he saw Mare in silent admiration for one of the pictures in general. Oddly enough he was gazing lovingly at the one picture that revolted Jircniv the most, the pile of slime.

"Out of all these amazing works, why is this child so mesmerized with this picture that is easily the worst of the group?" (there was another one he caught sight of that also seemed to be just a pile of sludge with two empty eye sockets drooping depressingly like a slimy skull) He was somewhat friendly with this elf child now, so he would simply just ask.

Maybe he could further endear himself to this young one by striking a civilized conversation about art, he didn't particularly care for this slime picture, but Mare seemed to be interested in it.

"What has you so interested in this picture?" He said in a low voice. Mare didn't answer him, he just kept looking up at the pile of goop. Jircniv looked up at it, maybe trying to see what he was looking at.

"I like her...is all..." Mare said in a hushed tone.

"Her? Interesting, I wouldn't have thought slimes would even have a gender." Jircniv was surprised to hear this fact, it made sense, after all, he'd just never assumed slimes had...genders.

Mare winced and frowned, unbeknownst to Jircniv, Lady Bukubukuchagama disliked the term "slime".

"Don't call her a "slime"..." Mare said, unfortunately, Jircniv did not hear Mare's order to him.

"I guess for a slime... I could kind of see how it would be seen as female... I guess." Jircniv cocked his head to one side, maybe... if he were a slime he'd call it "cute".

"For a slime..." he repeated low to himself as he began to ponder how slimes would even have sex. Unfortunately again for Jircniv, Mare heard him.

"Huh... I've never even seen the artwork of slimes before, and I noticed there are two in this room, quite amazing!" As he was saying this he noticed Mare shaking slightly.

"Huh? Mare are you okay?" He asked seeing his odd behavior.

"Don't call her a "Slime"... she's me... " Mare said in a low rumble. He could see Mare trembling even more as he lowered his head low and bit his lower lip.

"Maybe she is scared of this picture after all? Is she..." His thought was cut short by an icy feeling that washed over him like spikes and hooks. His breathing became ragged and short, sweat beaded upon his brow and his eyes began to tear up. His legs trembled and his stomach cramped.

"What... what is this feeling?" Had he been cursed after all? He fell to his knees gasping for air, it was all he could do to breathe!

"Am... Am I going to die? Right here? Right now?" Panic began to overrun his senses, his baser instinct was screaming at him to run for his life, 'run and don't stop, don't ever stop you fool!' But his logic was feverishly trying to figure were to run too, which direction was safe, where could he go...

"What am I even fleeing from?!" He screamed in his mind's voice.

Then he saw the eyes of the elf standing beside him. There was no sunshine, there was no light, no innocence... what he was gazing at was the eyes of someone dead set on destroying what's in front of them.

"Killing Intent..." Is what he told himself from the pit of his stomach... A desire to kill, maim and destroy, all of it, directed at him, from this child...no. This monster.

Killing intent so fierce and strong that standing against it would be like standing against the biggest waves of the oceans.

"Don't... call... Lady Bukubukuchagama..." The vortex of malice washed over him again, he felt as though he might soil himself right here and now.

"Don't... call her... slime... she has... a...name...a...TITLE!" Mare said with a voice as cold and dark as the night itself. He reached out his hand toward him. if Jircniv was able to talk, to scream to cry he might have done all those at once, but as it was all he could do was crouch in front of this child and await his demise, the want to kill him was so thick he now could not even breath.

"We... We are NOT friends!" Mare's voice was shaking and trembling. Jircniv felt a shove and his whole world view changed, he was in his room watching a black hole slowly recede away. No longer being assaulted by that emotion, he was able to breathe and stand again. What had he done? Why did the child react that way? He tried to recall the words spoken to him but he could not find the fragments of that memory. He sat on the edge of his bed, still sweating and breathing heavy, he tried to catch his breath but his fatigue from the recent ordeal with the elf claimed him as Jircniv fell back onto his bed like a puppet who strings had been cut.

CHAPTER TWO: Report

Jircniv was awoken by the sound of knocking at his door. This was more than strange, as he was sleeping in his personal chamber, his room... which meant whoever was knocking was standing inside his personal and restricted personal space. Also, the knocking was not light, as a maid or... her knocking would be, it was heavy, and clad behind some kind of strong metal. Jircniv took all this to mean it had to one of the "The Four". This was stranger still, as all three of his personal guards, were not scheduled to be by his side today.

"Yes... Hold on!" Jircniv spoke out loud enough so that either Nimble or Baziwood would be able to hear him, at which the knocking abruptly stopped. Jircniv put on a robe, slipped on his enchanted trinkets, gave a quick stretch and half a bend, yawned then opened the door before also giving his eyes a good rub.

When he opened the door, while he was expecting either Nimble or Baziwood, what he was not expecting was to see both. They had very serious looks on their faces which begat the odd nature of their arrival.

"Your Majesty, we apologize for this intrusion, but as I'm sure you must have already guessed, we have some very important news for you." The bigger of the two said in a respectful but still urgent tone. Jircniv said nothing but walked over to a table he had for entertain such, business-like, meetings. He sat and looked up at them, ready to receive this news.

"Go on Baziwood, what is it?"

"Well... Well early last night, we received a report from one of our informants. It was labeled urgent and had the markings of a 'dragon getting bit by a snake'..." Baziwood exclaimed as his expression grew even more serious.

"Dragon...Snake... Wait, you don't mean?!" Jircniv exclaimed, almost standing up. This was a form of code they used when dealing with matters of utmost importance and secrecy.

"Yes, Your Majesty..." This time it was Nimble who spoke up, he was the smaller of the two and he wore a circlet that wrapped neatly around his forehead and ran underneath his short, neatly trimmed, blonde hair.

"... Our informant has located something very important, but also unknown in nature." Nimble said quietly. The fact that he was still speaking in code and uncertainties, while even in this most trusted of company spoke volumes of the mans training, professionalism, and how serious he considered the news. With Jircnivs ever constant feeling of that he might not be alone when he was, or that things may have been moved ever so slightly when he knows there would be zero reasons for them to be doing so... he was secretly very appreciative of Nimble's professionalism. Jircniv decided to keep up the loose talk for now until his feelings of paranoia let off a bit.

"And... has the dragon gotten the antidote?" (Do we have possession of the item in question?) Both of his trusted guards frowned at the same time. (No) Jircniv thought for a bit.

"How many scales did the dragon lose?" (How far away is this object/when can I expect to see it?) Baziwood shook his head. (not very far... but also not within our borders, no possible time table of delivery)

"And the Doctors? What do they have to say?" (How many of our people know of this object?) The bigger knight looked at the smaller one, it must have been Nimble's man who received the news.

"The infection has spread much faster than we could have hoped." (All is well, other than the trusted man who delivered the news, the only other people to know of this news are in this very room. "Best case scenario".) Jircniv let out a small sigh of relief. He was feeling better about the security of this news so he decided to drop the formalities, plus his curiosity was killing him!

"Wait." There was one more 'question' he had to ask before he could relax his guard.

"Can we all go home happy?" (Does this news relate to The Sorcerer Kingdom or Ainz Ooal Gown) As soon as he spoke the coded question he knew the answer. Both Baziwood and Nimble froze, neither gave any kind of sign of an answer. Then after some time, Baziwood gave a slight cough. (We think so, or at least, good possibility)

"Shit..."Literally, the one thing he did not want to hear... he was only hours removed from 'almost losing his life' over a discussion about art. WAIT. The timing of this news... the goddamn timing! He had just had an audience with Ainz Ooal Gown, a very 'rushed' and odd meeting, even it's name, the... 'powwow' was it? That had to be some kind of code word... which meant, as expected, whatever his trusted knights were about to tell him, it DID relate to the Sorcerer Kingdom, and also Ainz definitely knows whatever they are going to say already.

He had once had a dream, a dream where he was made of wood and decorated in paint, he was the unliving embodiment of a doll, one made to look just like himself, but no matter how hard he tried to move, he would only lay there motionless. Then unexpectedly, he leaped to his feet and begin to dance the silliest of dances, he flailed about the stage, that he was now on, like a mad man, his arms, not under his control, would make the most absurd and obscene gestures at the crowd, finally the dream ended when Jircniv realized the reason he could not move under his own violation, it was due to strings, attached to all his joints and leading upward. At that point the string attached to the back of his head jerked up, forcing him to look at the face of the man who was literally pulling all his strings. And there was the unyielding and unchanging expression of death, that bone face stripped of its skin, with it's empty but all-consuming eyes of black and burning red. Jircniv tried to scream out in horror but alas, this was not in the puppeteer's script and Jircniv was forced to keep dancing like the idiot that he was.

"I'm a puppet on his strings..." Jircniv muttered not on purpose. Both of his knights looked confused then looked at one another for help. (He had "used a code" that they did not understand) Jircniv realized the reason for their distress then smiled and waved his hands.

"No no, I was just thinking, there is no more reason to keep up our coded language as I'm sure The Sorcerer King already knows whatever it is you want to tell me."He said out loud as Jircniv laughed inside his own head.

"Well.. ahem well we think we found something that... Quite frankly, it does not belong to this world." Nimble said gravely.

"What did your man report?" Jircniv directed the question at Nimble.

"He heard odd tales of a strange man living in some caves north of where he was stationed when he went to go investigate he came across a man who had lost his sanity. Nimble paused for a second as he readied the next part of his statement.

"Our man offered to help the individual but he was met with fear and mistrust, and the man ran off into the hills where he was rumored to be living. Luckily my man, whose name is Lent Loudson by the way, is a skilled ranger and had little trouble tracking the man to his cave. There he saw a short male covered in what he hoped was just dirt and mud but with a wild look in his eyes, Lent said that he must have been out in the wild for a very long time due to the overgrowth and wild nature of the man's hair. But when he approached the short man this time he was met with glee and excitement, he wanted to show our man "his treasure". Apparently, he was quite fond of whatever it was, but just as he was about to show what it was the man became violent, then armed with only a blacksmithing hammer attacked Lent." Jircniv eyebrows peeked up at the unexpected events in the report so far. Nimble took a breath and continued the report.

"I guess the unexpected attack worked and he was able to land a rather good blow, but due to the mans short and stocky nature, it landed on one of his knees, a "critical hit" he exclaimed it as. When Lent retaliated with an attack of his own...one backed by an ability he knows, giving him much more power than he normally could muster, I guess he's rather proud of it... however, the crazed man blocked Lents attack with something...with an object he had wrapped in cloth." Nimble finished.

"And?" Jircniv asked waiting for whatever made this news so dire.

"Here is the blade Lent struck at the man with..." Nimble said as he procured a small sack from his waist. Jircniv had noticed this unusual addition to Nimble's attire when he answered them at the door. From the sack, he pulled out a broken dagger, a rather fine one, no a very fine one, other than the fact that it was broken into two pieces, the dagger at large with about three inches missing from it. Shortly after Nimble produced the missing 3 inches, the tip of its blade. Jircnivs eyes widened as soon as he realized the implications of this broken dagger. The dagger was made of adamantite.

"How..." Jircniv began.

"We don't know... but an adamantite dagger... has no business snapping like this, even one made as thin as this one." The pure resilience of adamantite meant you could make the blade thinner, and lighter than usual without sacrificing durability. It should never have snapped like this from a single attack... even one that met resistance on the same level as its own, adamantine.

"Harder than adamantite?" Jircniv asked with a dubious look on his face. Nimble slowly nodded. Jircniv thought for a few seconds then nodded.

"Okay, well first, reimburse Mr. Loudson for this dagger, and give him an award for his actions... even a promotion if you feel he'll do well with it," Jircniv said nodding as he placed the broken dagger down onto the table.

"What happened to the crazy man?" Jircniv asked even though he knew what the answer would be.

"Well due to the nature of his injury, when the man ran off, Loudson was unable to give proper chase, but before he retreated to town to give us this news, he noted that the man seemed to be heading toward a known forest, and not deeper into the hills," Nimble said gravely. Jircniv clicked his tongue, he could guess just which forest this man had probably run into.

"Is it?" Jircniv asked looking at his knight in the eye.

"Yes, the forest that's under the control of a mighty goblin army and located next to a "village" that, until lately, nobody knew even existed... Carne "Village"." Jircniv eye twitch ever so slightly.

"This man, this short, stocky man with a blacksmithing hammer...I'm guessing he had a large beard as well?" Jircniv asked, raising up an eyebrow.

"Lent did report that all his hair was overgrown, so yes, he had quite the large beard," Nimble answered.

"A dwarf...it has to be... and wasn't that monster babbling about something they used to make... "rune crafting"?" Jircnivs eyes widened, so it was all connected...

"Any chance this man was a dwarf?" Jircniv asked? Both of his knights looked shocked.

"Your Majesty... while this man was 'short and stocky' there hasn't been the sight of a Dwarf in quite some time... even so close to their 'once' capital.

"There have been all sorts of beings cropping up that until late, we would never see." Jircniv reminded his guard. It was true, with the revamped E-Rantel, one was reported to see all sorts of craziness once thought only would happen in fairy tales. And it just so happened that Jircniv had a close and personal friend who, for lack of a better word, knew the dwarves very well.

"Okay, it is my suspicion that this man... is a dwarf, so I will be researching this, personally," Jircniv said with a serious expression. Both his knights broke their perfect posture and went into one where you were pleading with someone.

"Your Majesty, there is no reason to burden yourself with this, and your time alone is..."

"My time is more abundant than ever thanks to His Majesty The Sorcerer King!" He rebuked his guards.

"Pluss... Plus this gives me a reason to call on a good friend of mine." Jircniv said with a smile.

"The...Uh, the demihuman? Your, Majesty?" Nimble asked. Jircniv looked disappointed, neither of his guards had met Pe Riyuro, but he had told them about him, and painted him in a very positive light, but it would seem because he was a DemiHuman, or more accurately a 'Quagoa'. Neither of his guards trusted his new friend very much, or it could just possibly be jealousy on their parts, he chuckled in his head as he pictured child versions of his two favorite guards crying and bawling because they wanted their daddy to spend more time with them. No to think of them as such was a discredit to their station, but he did sometimes view them as kids, his kids... even more so than his actual offspring.

"And as it just so happens, that as a Vassal State to The Sorcerer Kingdom, I am welcomed into towns of trade!" Jircniv exclaimed as he clapped his hands.

"E-Rantel? But the report has the man going..." Baziwood started until he realized his emperor's deviousness at work.

"I see... So then shall I begin preparations for His Majesty to visit the 'trade town' of E-Rantel?" Baziwood asked. Jircniv gave him a nod.

"But even still... to enter The Sorcerer Kingdoms territory without so much as a notice, isn't that a little...odd?" Nimble asked.

"I personally believe that a low profile visit would yield better results and would be a better use of my "important" time," Jircniv smirked.

"And besides... I fully believe my actions are that of the will of The Sorcerer King himself." He told his guards honestly.

"Why is that, Your Majesty?" They asked, almost in unison. He did not offer them an answer, instead, he just turned his attention to the window and peered out at the morning sky.

"Because I'm a puppet dancing at the end of his strings." He quietly thought to himself. then sneered inwardly. In about a days time they were ready to go and headed down to the royal stables.

"I know Your Majesty said he wanted to keep a low profile... but is the two of us really okay?" Baziwood remarked with concern after Jircniv told him it would just be the two of them escorting him to "E-Rantel".

"I agree with Baziwood, what if we are attacked by a force the two of us alone cannot handle?" Nimble objected. To this Jircniv remained silent but with a knowing smile. Baziwood just looked at Nimble and shrugged. They walked in silence for a bit longer when Nimble furrowed his brow and stopped walking.

"Wait... Your Majesty, who will be taking us there? You have not assigned a driver for us." Nimble asked confused, he knew Jircniv would never just "forget" to do something like that. To this Jircniv just smiled again and motioned that it will be fine as he took a turn toward the royal stables... but not his usual stable. Jircniv led his ever-suspicious knights to a dark red door with no handle, window or locks to speak of.

"What is this door? Has this always been here? No, this is new... is this magical?" Nimble asked growing even more nervous. Jircniv placed his hand on a section of the door, it lit up then there was a sound of unlatching and the giant red door began to swing open slowly. Nimble and Baziwood exchanged glances.

"Try not to freak out, this was a gift from His Majesty," Jircniv said as the door finished it's motion, inside was something neither of them expected to see. A charred black skeletal frame of a hoarse obediently stood there, it's green fog that it produced from 'one only knows' fell harmlessly to the ground before dissipating. It turned its gaze toward Jircniv and even though it's empty eye sockets were filled with nothing but pale smoke it still managed to pull off a look of friendly recognition when it saw the emperor.

"I believe they are called 'Soul Eaters' " Jircniv said with a gloomy tone.

"But I like to call him 'Biscuit!'" Jircniv proclaimed with a high tone. Both of his knights leaped in between him and the undead threat but Jircniv simply moved between them and walked up next to the undead entity.

"You like that name... don't cha Biscuit?" Jircniv said patting the "back" of whatever this thing had for a back. Nimble was sure he saw the Soul Eater roll it's nonexistent eyes at the mention of the name Biscuit.

"This thing is..." Baziwood stammered. Jircniv continued walking past the undead killing machine and led his baffled but ever understanding knights to the carriage that was attached to it.

"That... frog looking demon that works for His Majesty, Demiurge, had this delivered to me shortly after I asked to become a vassal state. As a way of "Thanks for making his job easier" or something to that nature, anyway, he assured me that, as a vassal state, should I ever be in The Sorcerous Kingdoms territories, should I ride in this, I will be 100% safe from harassment or checks and left alone from any of the low-level guards that will be stationed all over the roads... oh he said something about a ship escorting me as well should I feel the need... but how a ship would escort a land carriage, I have no idea." Jircniv said while shrugging and opening the door.

"You should let me get that for you..." Baziwood said not happy with how his Emperor had just opened the door for his servants.

"No, it's magic, it will open only for me or one of Nazarick... oh that reminds me, HEY BISCUIT?" Jircniv shouted to the front of the carriage, the undead horse lazily turned its head to meet his gaze.

"Listen to these two as you would me too, okay?" Jircniv said pointing to his guards. "Biscuit" gave a single nod of understanding then turned it's head forward awaiting further orders.

"But still... it's very gracious of Ain..." Baziwood looked nervously at the undead horse.

"...His Majesty, The Sorcerer King, to lend you such a beast." Baziwood finished, maintaining a worried look on the Soul Eater.

"Yes... and should something ever to happen and we were declared enemies of the sorcery kingdom..." Jircniv said as he cast a glance at the beast. At that moment both knights saw that, even though he had named this thing, The Emperor knew all too well what it could, and happily would do, if the order should be given to it by its true master.

"Just another shackle disguised as a bracelet."

"But beyond that, with this thing, I mean, with 'Biscuit' in tow, what threat would befall us that we could not handle?" Jircniv asked his knights. Indeed, even if an enemy dragon or hoard of demihuman were to befall them, they would have to do little more than lay back and laugh at the idiots who dared attack a creature summoned from the ruler of death and magic. Both knights gave a nod of understanding before joining their Emperor in the posh carriage.

"Oh.. um Your Majesty, while it may be... normal in The Sorcerer Kingdom..." Nimble cast a worried look at Biscuit.

"Ah yes, you're right, we will be traveling out of The Empire, so I'd hate to cause a stir on the way out, um..." Jircniv paused as in exaggerated thought for a moment. He then snapped his fingers and pointed at Biscuit in an almost comical way of ordering something to do something.

"Biscuit! Human driver... black coat!" Jircniv proclaimed loudly. The smoke from the soul eater began to suck into its frame, then it shot out to cover itself and the driver's seat with the sickly green and yellow smoke, there was a shimmer and suddenly the death mount became a normal horse with a beautiful black coat and long black mane and tail, there was a man they did not see before sitting at the driver's helm holding reins in his hands and continually pantomiming the act of controlling a horse. When the shock wore off, the two knights crawled into the carriage and took a seat opposite their emperor.

"Okay then, Biscuit! take us to E-Rantel! Medium pace." There was a slight lurch and the carriage began to move to its destination. However, it wasn't long before they hit their first snag. An overturned food cart had the street they wanted to use to left crowded and for all purposes, blocked.

"Looks like this could be a while, eh?" Nimble asked to nobody in particular. (but with that tone it should be assumed it was toward Baziwood.)

"I hope not too long, I can't help but noticed His Majesty didn't pack any food or water either..." Baziwood said with a concerned look at his emperor. Jircniv as usual just pulled a knowing smirk and pointed at some boxes and jugs stationed underneath the seats that the knights were sitting upon.

"Meats...vegetables...fruits...water...wine." Jircniv listed the contents of each of the containers.

"They are endless, will never run out no matter how much Baziwood here ate and drank!" Jircniv said, teasing his favorite knight.

"We could be stuck in the mountains and live for eternity on the contents of those containers, we'd have everything we could ever need." The Emperor explained while helping himself to an apple that he produced from the 'fruit' container.

"Well... We wouldn't have any women!" Baziwood exclaimed with a laugh.

"Eh, if things got that bad we could just dress up Nimble here in a dress and make him dance for us." Jircniv jokingly laughed.

"Y...your majesty... Is in a mood today..." Nimble said trying to not show any reaction to the out of place joke.

"I'm sorry Nimble, you're right... maybe my outlook has been changed by my near-death experience last night..." Jircniv said, wiping the smile from his face to show he was not joking anymore. The two knights looked at him with disbelief.

"Oh, that's right... I haven't told you about my... "powwow" with the Sorcerer King the other day." Jircniv stated, getting ready to relay the events of the night before. he told them everything that had happened, everything except the part where he nearly wet himself because of a child's angry gaze.

"To think, only His Majesty would turn art discussion into such a life or death struggle," Nimble said with a sly smile. Jircniv frowned at the implications of that remark but ultimately decided he deserved it for putting the image of Nimble in a dress in their heads.

"So then you really think The Sorcerer King knows about this "unknown item" and wants us to get it for him?" Baziwood asked.

"The timing can't be a coincidence, he pulls me aside for some secret meeting, he talks of something only dwarves are known to do... then news of a possible dwarf surfaces carrying something incredible, merely a day later? No, I don't know why he didn't just come out and say it... but I'm sure that this is what he wants me to do." Jircniv stated in confidence.

"Okay then... Let's go get us a dwarf... Erm, well when this mess clears up anyway..." Baziwood said with a frown. It was then that the sound of a lute caught their attention. It would seem a wandering bard was going to use this incident to get some 'forced audience' attention... and hopefully a few coppers!

"Roll down the window, I want to hear this!" Jircniv said pointing to the window. Baziwood nodded and cracked the window open just enough to let the sound carry in but not to reveal the people on the inside.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, while we wait for this tragedy of a mess to be cleared, may I tell you a tale of a different but still recent tragedy!" The bard began and he strummed his lute to no particular tune. A look of recognition and then worry settled across Baziwood's face.

"Um...perhaps His Majesty may not want to listen too well to this particular tune..." Baziwood gloomily stated. Jircniv gave a look of understanding but just shrugged.

"If this song paints me in an unfavorable manner then I should listen... no, I must listen." The Emperor stated as he leaned back against his comfortable seat and waited for the show to begin. The bard began his story...

"Every year we would gather to fight our neighbors to the west (music)

after a while, it seemed so pointless, we called The Kingdom a pest (more music followed by some chuckles from the Empire loyal crowd.)

Until The Sorcery King decided to give that whole business a REST!" (He strummed louder to get more people's attention)

ALL our knights lined up again, all in a row usually just for show! (music)

So did The Kingdom with its mighty Gazaff The Hero! (music stops abruptly, to mimic a "moment of silence" as nobody was happy to be reminded of the death of the greatest warrior of their two nations.)

But out came the one cloaked all in black, with his army of death he stood to ATTACK! (another loud music strum)

The Kingdom saw him and did CHARGE! But what they thought were jokes...(silence)

TURNED OUT TO BE FIVE GIANT BABY GOATS! (the bard strummed erratically as this was the 'main part' of his performance)

The Kingdom made a mistake! And tried to run, this was not fun then the ground began to QUAKE! (music)

And before anyone knew... (silence)

what was this...

and what was that...(the bard paused to look at all the faces that were stopped to look at him, he had everyone's attention now, it was time for the best part...)

The Kingdoms soldiers began to go... (a very long pause)

SPLAT! (loud strum)

SPLAT! (loud strum)

SPLAT! (loud strum)

SPLAT! (loud strum)

SPLAT! (loud strum)" The crowd clapped at the clever use of words and music at once.

"OHHHH! But WHY did The Sorcery King use such a powerful spell, when ANYTHING would do...?" Baziwood shot a worried glance at Jircniv for he knew what was coming next...

"IT'S BECAUSE OUR GREAT EMPEROR! Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix... HE'S THE ONE WHO TOLD HIM TO USE *THAT!* The bard then quickly flipped over his lute to reveal a crude painting of a black baby goat on the underside of his lute. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause at the unexpected reveal of the baby goat. Baziwood looked at Jircniv to gauge his reaction but Jircniv was looking with a worried look of his own at Nimble. Nimble was sweating profusely, his teeth were chattering, his whole body was shaking and his eye movements seemed very erratic he was holding himself together, but by only a thread.

"SHIT" Baziwood was so worried about how The Emperor would take a bad joke... He forgot that his friend was actually there when this happened, he knew that Nimble was a little different after that day, and never cared to speak of it. Baziwood quickly rolled up the window and tried to act like he didn't notice the sorry state his friend was in, pity would be the worst thing right now. Jircniv and Baziwood just sat in awkward silence watching their friend, mentally relive the worst day in his life.

"Try and find us another way around Biscuit..." Jircniv solemnly ordered their soul Eater for a driver.

Baziwood added something to his "to-do list"... beat the living shit out of that bard next time he saw him. The three continued their trip to E-Rantel in silence, neither of them said anything when Nimble silently began to weep into his hands.


	2. E-Rantel

Traveling out of the empire was relatively peaceful, at one point Nimble saw a man he served with long ago begging for coppers with a missing leg. Nimble asked if they may pull over for a second, as Jircniv decided he could do well to relieve himself, he agreed to Nimble's request.

"S...sir?" The wounded veteran remarked with recognition when he saw his old commander approaching him unexpectedly. He even began to get to his "feet" before Nimble quickly stopped him from doing so, instead, he took a knee in front of the man to meet him eye to eye.

"Hello...Fridikson, was it?" Nimble asked patting the man on the shoulder.

"Y...Yes, sir! I'm amazed you remember me!" The old soldier said with a broad smile. Inwardly Nimble frowned and looked at the man's leg.

"I'd never forgotten..." Nimble said in a lowered voice. Upon giving the man a quick once over he noted some things.

"You... are homeless?" Nimble asked disappointed, this man once had a daughter and wife, the fact that he was removed from the...

"Ah... well no, I mean I know of a nice place to sleep, but I gotta clear out before the farmhands wake up or they charge me a copper.

"He's homeless..."

Nimble gave a quick glance around, The Emperor was still doing his bodily duty.

"Hold on." Nimble got up and walked over to the carriage. Baziwood greeted him. Nimble grabbed his personal sack and filled it to the brim with dried meats and other foods. He handed him the sack. The veteran's eyes widened when he saw the amount of food he had just received.

"Sir! This is..." The man asked still jaw hanging open.

"Just to keep you going while you take a carriage back to the capital," Nimble said. By this time Jircniv had finished and caught Nimble talking to the man, he leaned up behind the carriage so as not to disturb the two.

"Ah, I'm afraid there isn't much waiting for me there... you see my wife she..." The man's expression changed drastically.

"There are places in the capital that will take some care of you..." Nimble whispered as to not embarrass the man. The man had a look of rejection in his eyes. Nimble sighed.

"Well, here is some gold for the carriage trip there if you change your mind," Nimble said with an unchanging expression. They exchanged a few more pleasantries then Nimble returned to his group. Jircniv was already sitting back in the carriage with the door opened. Nimble got in and shut the door behind him giving a bow to Jircniv and a nod to Baziwood.

"You, knew that man?" Jircniv asked.

"Ah yes, when I was made commander, that man was under my command. His leg was lost, probably, because of an order I gave... my first order as a commander actually." Nimble said with an almost wistful tone.

"Oh?" Jircniv said with some curiosity attached to that remark. Nimble nodded as he recounted his younger years.

"Bandits were attacking some of our military lines when we would let down our guard. I was tasked with routing the bandit group..." Normally such a task would fall to adventures, or possibly even workers if you were light of coin.

"... because they were only targeting military cargo that was undefended, I suspected they might have a man giving them tips on which carriages were ones to hit, possibly even "on the inside." Jircniv frowned, before he had routed the cancerous elements from his beloved Empire, such corrupt things would happen very often.

"I arranged an undercover operation, I picked a handful of new recruits, I knew they were clean because the new ones always were... greed and slothfulness were the showings of a failed... older soldier." He trailed off a bit before speaking up again.

"Sure enough the fake carriage was hit, but inside were my men, the report I received from the melee stated that three of the soldiers I sent were killed almost instantly, the bandits were just as well-armed as the soldiers because of their choice of recent targets. Even though they were being ambushed, the bandits had a fighter on their side that was a cut above the rest." Nimble frowned, the bandit group only numbered thirteen (at most) swords, so to claimed total victory Nimble had sent close to thirty men to crush them, his numbers should have easily been enough to win the day. But this is a world of weakness and strength. The gap between the two can sometimes not even be filled with numbers.

"As I'm told, even after the soldiers were able to cull the bandit team to around four members or so, they ran into a wall, one of the bandits was a monk or something because he would kill our soldiers with a single punch." Jircniv peeked up at that word, monks were pretty rare in The Empire.

"In all, I'm told this monk single-handedly killed over 20 men by himself before my team tried to run, but he hunted them down for sport one by one, as it was Fridikson was the sole man standing, the monk left him alive so that he could "tell The Empire to send more people next time."

"Did this monk give his name?" Jircniv asked.

"No, but Fridikson stated he was bald and had animal tattoos all over his body... so we can guess who it was..." Nimble said with a frown.

"I'd like to get my revenge on Zero someday...But I've heard that he hasn't been seen ever since around the time The Kingdom was attacked by that demon... so he's probably dead." Nimble stated. Baziwood thought for a second.

"If he is still alive, what do you think your chances would be in a fight with him?" The large knight asked his smaller comrade. Nimble squinted as he thought, you can tell he had given this thought in the past.

"In a duel setting... he'd win for sure, no doubt, but, if I could catch him "out in the world" where anything goes, even if it were still one on one, if I had access to a warhorse, I could win," Nimble said nodding the whole time.

"Welp, I heard a rumor he ran into Brain Unglas and was easily beaten," Jircniv stated.

"Easily? Is Brain really that strong?" Baziwood asked shocked.

"Who knows, it's just a rumor, but I heard Brain was protecting some old butler who got captured or something by The Eight Fingers, the rumor says that he didn't even use a sword to kill Zero," Jircniv said laughing.

"Your Majesty must be mistaken! A swordsman could never best a monk without his blade!" Nimble said in disbelief.

"Again, only a rumor, but I heard he baited Zero in with a "sword technique" of some kind, and when Zero charged him, he wound up killing Zero with a single kick to the head!" Jircniv said now laughing at how far fetched that sounded.

"Well, I don't believe that for a second" Nimble growled.

"Stranger things have happened" Baziwood exclaimed with a frown.

"If that is true, however, I really should have tried to make him one of "The Four". Jircniv said clicking his tongue.

"Could we trust a 'once sellsword' with His Majesty's life?" Nimble asked doubtfully.

"About as much as I trusted Leina, if someone's motives are clear, you can tame them, and with a 'sellsword,' it's always money right? The most trusted of motives." Jircniv explained.

"As it is, it would seem we missed our chance, that Princess now has a nice guard dog to go along with her 'puppy'," Jircniv said.

"About that... You uh, hear the rumors concerning that princess, and her two male bodyguards... who never leave her side..." Baziwood said with a goofy grin on his face. Jircniv frowned, such rumors were always spread about female royalty by their opponents, Jircniv knew the Princess wasn't into such lewd behaviors... in fact, it was entirely possible she was the one propagating those rumors for some, unknown reason, Jircniv had stopped trying to predict that woman moves.

"Well, at any rate, it looks like we'll be reaching The Empires border soon," Jircniv said as he pulled the curtain back a little to peek outside. They all knew what that meant. Things could get very unpredictable from here on out.

"So, will we be traveling through the night? This would be the last chance to set up a "safe" camp."Baziwood stated. Jircniv gave him a slight nod. 'Let's get a good night's sleep before we go into The Sorcerous Kingdoms borders' is what he said with only a look. The two knights set up their camp as 'Biscuit' made sure no harm would come to them in their sleep. With the exception of a passing adventure group (silver ranked) that gave the camp a very wide berth, nothing happened.

By the time Jircniv had woken up and opened the door to the carriage their whole camp had already been torn down and the group was ready to go after a morning breakfast of meats and fruits. Nimble took notice of an out of place smile of his emperor's face when they ate.

"Did Your Majesty sleep well?" He asked upon greeting The Emperor. Jircniv gave a "so-so" motion with his hand. Within twenty minutes they were back on the road, about to leave the safety of His Majesty's motherland.

When they were a "good ways" into The Sorcerer Kings territory Jircniv had Biscuit dropped the illusion and they traveled for some time with no events, until at one point they heard from outside the carriage what sounded like a huge battle. the knights peered out the window and saw lots of dust coming from the direction of the racket. they looked at Biscuit but he seemed uninterested in the event going on over the hill.

"Wanna check it out? Baziwood asked. While there was only a slim chance this had anything to do with their mission, the fact that Biscuit wasn't on alarm gave him some comfort.

"Sure, why not?" And with that, they made a slight detour, as they approached the melee there was a knocking on the carriage, not on its door, but on the roof on the carriage, also they could tell someone was standing on top of it.

"HEEEEELLLLOOOO? Who is in there? HEEEELLLLLOOOOOO?" A girl's voice yelled out loudly. Jircniv froze and he began to sweat...

"Is that Mare? It sounds like her... no, the voice is too confident and outspoken. Oh, it's "the other one" Mare's sister."

The two knights looked alarmed but Jircniv wove his hand.

"You are addressing Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix, ruler of the Baharuth Empire, state your name and intentions!" Nimble yelled, his sidearm was already drawn.

"HUH? Why is THAT guy here?" They heard the voice say before the carriage door was pulled open and with all the acrobatics that her small body afforded her, Aura swung down from up top the carriage did a neat little flip and landed neatly right next to Jircniv. She gave out a little laugh as she produced both her hands making two "V for victory" poses and beaming out a smile that only Mare could hope to match.

"Don't enter without an invitation first!" Nimble said returning his sword to his sheath.

"Huh? Or you'll do what exactly?" She asked puzzled. Nimble clicked his tongue and didn't speak. There was no rudeness to her voice, just curiosity.

"First, allow me to welcome you properly," Jircniv said giving her a respectful head bow. Aura looked at the emperor.

"Sure, but why are you here? " She asked. Giving him a little bow, almost as an afterthought.

"Ah, well we are on a mission given to us directly by His Majesty The Sorcerer King, Lord Ainz Ooal Gown of the Great Tomb of Nazarick," Jircniv explained to her. She seemed rather pleased when hearing him use the full title of her lord.

"OH! Okay then! If you are here with Lord Ainzes permission then is there anything I can do to help?" She said with a smile.

"Perhaps, we are looking for an object that is in possession of a rogue dwarf, he was last seen in the forest controlled by Carne Village.

"Well I'd say it's more accurate to say the forest is controlled by ME, but whatever, those goblins are nice enough." Aura said shrugging.

"Well then, maybe you know of this dwarf I'm looking for?" Jircniv said hopefully. Aura thought for a second then shook her head. It was then that a loud voice filled with distress began calling out.

"Mistress Aura! Mistress Aura!? W...Where are YOU?!" The loud voice called out getting more and more distraught. Aura sighed and rolled her eyes.

"That Hejinmal is such a baby!" She exclaimed before getting out and jumping out the open carriage door.

"HOLD ON! I'm talking to some important guests, use this time to practice your tail strikes!" Aura barked out at the, somewhat overweight, frost dragon.

"B...but I've done over 1000 tail whips today alone!" The voice whined back. Jircniv realized he had heard his friend talk about this particular frost dragon before.

"Is that COMPLAINING I HEAR?" Aura yelled with exaggerated annoyance. She walked over to the dragon, beside the fact that this beast was easily 20 times her size, the way he shrank away from her resembled a mouse trying to escape a cat.

"NO!...NEVER! I was... I was just uh... LETTING YOU KNOW! Yes, I was just telling you that my uh 'daily' 1000 strikes are already finished... so uh..." The dragon said waving his hands back and forth

"Oh YEAH?! Well, let me have it then!" She ordered.

"Mistress Aura?" he asked with a worried tone.

"If you've REALLY been doing 1000 tail strike a day I should feel a difference, so LET ME HAVE IT!" She yelled shaking her fist.

"Um... okay." He got into attack position. Aura shook her head and sighed.

"Take off the collar first dummy, your stats are low enough already without THAT thing on your neck!" At her order, Hejinmal unclamped a large black collar with a broken dangling chain and it fell loudly to the ground.

"R...Ready?" The frost dragon asked timidly.

"JUST DO IT!" She yelled with now encroaching anger in her voice, the dragon yelped from fear looked away while closing his eyes and swung his massive tail at the little girl with such force that the air shot off from the swing was enough to rock the Emperor's carriage. The impact was loud and violent, the sound of a small explosion ringing out caught even the two knights off guard. After the dust settled, where there should have been a smear of blood and a VERY dead elf girl, instead was Aura with her arm up, she had blocked the entire force of the attack with just her outstretched forearm.

"SERIOUSLY?! That's it?! You only did like 300 damage!" She barked at him vigorously shaking her head in a "no no no" fashion.

"B...But last time I did 240 damage so..." He whined fighting back tears. he'd hope he would get praise for the increase in damage but...

"THAT'S ENTIRELY TOO LOW! I DON'T CARE!" She yelled shaking her head the dragon flopped over and curled into a fetal position and began to sob. Aura sighed and shook her head. She looked over at her shoulder at the group just looking in silence, she shook her head in "can you believe this?" expression. Jircniv simply smiled nervously.

"Hejinmal... I'm only hard on you because I need you to be STRONG! like the rest of my pets, you want me to keep you right?" She said softening the tone of her voice as a mother would after scolding her child. The dragon while still sniveling nodded.

"Uh-huh..." He said meekly getting back to his feet and wiping tears from his eyes with his wrist.

"Okay then!" She said smiling and patting his nose gently like a dog, the tip of the frost dragons tail began to wag ever so slightly. Suddenly her expression changed to that of 100% seriousness, her eyes grew wide and she grabbed the dragon's nose and brought it lower so that his monsterly huge head was right up to her face she was looking a creature 20 times her size dead in the eye.

"Then get that collar back on, and go do...two...no 3000 tail whips!" She ordered point-blank to his face.

"THREE THOUSAAAAAND?!" He cried out with horror reeling back in surprise.

"MY TAIL WILL FALL OFF!" He wailed with tears streaming down his face more than ever.

"So dragons can cry?" Jircniv thought to himself as he watched this absurd drama play out. His knights were flabbergasted, this was the first time either of them had laid eyes on a dragon, and here one was... crying like a child told to go to its chores.

"THEN I GUESS IM HAVING FROST DRAGON TAIL STEAK FOR DINNER TONIGHT!" Aura yelled as the Dragon scampered away attaching his collar with a sulking demeanor to him as he walked away.

"OH! Sorry about that, I'm just trying to train Hejinmal to get strong... have you ever seen such a weak dragon?" She sighed while shaking her head.

"I know that name...Pe Riyuro mentioned it before, he was his "favorite" of the frost dragon back when they had their old alliance because he was lazy and never tried to eat any of the Quagoa." Thought The Emperor.

"It's no problem, we were just investigating the noise, we really don't have to take up your time." Jircniv proclaimed getting more and more uneasy around this girl.

"Oh okay, well if there's anyth...I SAW THOSE LAST TWO TAIL WHIPS! THEY DON'T COUNT! START OVER AGAIN!" Aura yelled, interrupted herself, a loud 'Ehhhhhhhhh?' could be heard as the dragon lowered his head.

"So you said you were looking for a dwarf?" She asked cocking her head.

"Yes, last seen heading into Carne... into your forest, and carrying something His Majesty has tasked me with retrieving for him," Jircniv explained. Aura thought for a second nodding to herself.

"Hey, Fenrir!" Aura called before a giant black wolf leaped from her shadow. The sudden appearance of this magical beast made the three humans jump back but neither of the two paid their fear any attention.

"Any dwarves in my forest lately?" She asked the majestic wolf shook its head no. She looked at him for a second nodded once more.

"Well... maybe he's newly arrived, so why not go search for him?" Aura asked in a nice tone that was different than the tone she took with the dragon. The wolf nodded then bounded off after it took four paces it stopped and turned it's head to look at Aura as if to ask her something.

"Oh, do you want Fenrir to kill it and bring back it's stuff?" Aura asked. Jircniv shook his head.

"I want to know where he got the object he has first." Aura nodded at his words.

"No, just bring him back alive, and make sure you have all his stuff, bring anything hidden that you might find too that smells of him, got it?" Aura asked. The wolf nodded once more and was gone so fast that nobody saw him leave.

"Okay, if Fenrir finds your dwarf I'll let you know!" She said giving Jircniv a "thumbs up".

"Thank you...oh!" Jircniv said as he thought of something.

"Um... last time I talked to your sister, Mare, I seemed to have said something that really upset her. If, if you could extend my apologies to Mare and let her know that I'm sorry for whatever I said that offended her." Jircniv said.

"Eh? My sister? I don't have..." A look of mischievousness crossed Aura's face before she spoke back up.

"Oh really? You made my SISTER mad, did you? How?" Aura asked with a giggle.

"We..We were discussing a picture of a 'slime' that was in a gallery of other...creatures when I must have said something..." Jircniv tried to explain when a look of understanding crossed her face.

"You called Lady Bukubukuchagama a slime in front of Mare, didn't you?" Aura asked with a knowing smile.

"I.. I guess I must have... but, oh is that the sl... is that her name?" Jircniv asked with some understanding. Aura nodded then shook her head comically.

"Honestly my broth... Mare can be so emotional sometimes. Okay, Mister Jircniv..."

"Again...mister..."

"...I'll let my SISTER (giggle) know you are sorry and didn't know, I'm sure SHE will forgive you." Aura said giggling.

"Well... thank you, should you find anything, we will be staying in E-Rantel somewhere..." Jircniv started.

"No problem! I'll contact you using [MESSAGE]." Aura explained. It always shocked him how flippantly the ones from Nazarick think of using magic.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have a dragon to train... COME ON! WE'RE NOT STOPPING! I DON'T LIKE MARE HAVING A STRONGER DRAGON THAN I DO!" Aura barked out at the dragon as she loudly clapped her hands over and over. Jircniv shook his head feeling sorry for that dragon, he was a dragon prince once and now made to jump through hoops by a sadistic elf girl, a feeling he could all too well identify with.

With the exception of a few troupes of goblin patrolling the roads, they traveled nothing happened until they came up upon more goblins who were standing around giant moving creatures. One of the goblins was giving orders to the golems while the other where helping carriages and travelers detour the road they were on, it would seem the goblins were in the process of helping the golems lay a brick foundation for the makings of a very large paved road. As they passed Jircniv managed to steal a glance at the road workers, he had recently "rented" a very large amount of working undead to do work much like these golems were in The Empire... Unfortunately a wandering group of silver ranked Adventurers looking for bounty kills came across the skeleton workforce and mistook their shovels and pickaxes for weaponry and besieged the working skeletons, the workforce was quite large (and expensive) but since the skeletons were told only to "build the streets" and not "defend yourselves" they just did their assigned jobs even as hammers, sword, and arrows rained down upon them. "Growing pains" Ainz had called it when Jircniv reported what had happened to his leaned out workforce.

Soon enough they made their way to the gates of E-Rantel when the guards saw the carriage they were in, the were immediately forwarded to the front of the line to enter and given access with not a single question or inspection. Such trust was rare these days.

"So what did Your Majesty plan on doing here first?" Baziwood asked as their cart, which blended in just fine with the rest of undead wandering the streets. Jircniv furrowed his brow in silent thought, Pe Riyuro would usually be found in the blacksmithing district looking for high-grade unrefined oar to purchase and feed his young. There or simply drinking wine he'd purchased from all over the human territories. But it was too late in the day to hope to find too many shops open, and Pe Riyuro never had a habit of staying in the same place twice, making it hard to track him down during one of his 'shopping sprees'.

"It's too late in the day to do anything right now, let's get settled at one of the local INNs before we plan our next move," Jircniv ordered. As Biscuit knew this town very well they had to do little more than tell it where to go and it would obediently go to the desired destination, even if the orders were as vague as, "take us to a very good hotel." The Soul Eater would deliver the trio to an establishment fit for an emperor.

"I'll sign us into the hotel under false names," Baziwood said and made for the desk. Surprisingly the very expensive hotel was rather filled up, Baziwood wondered what all the commotion was about. They left all their armor and weaponry inside of the magically sealed carriage and were wearing, high-class noble attire". Baziwood hated it, not being in his suit of armor made him feel as naked as a baby twisting in the wind. There was a bit of a line at the sign-in desk so Baziwood silently got in line. He observed the room, not only were there a lot of people here, but their looks ran the gamut, even for E-Rantel standards, what was going on, an event of some kind? Baziwood's thought was interrupted by a loud voice coming from behind him.

"Can you BELIEVE they are making us wait in a line at a place this "high class?" The voice belonged to a young man dressed in a kind of good attire. Baziwood did a double take when he realized that the obnoxiously loud question had been directed at him.

"I'm sorry?" Baziwood asked the stranger.

"This line! Isn't it ridiculous to make someone of my high political standing sit in it and wait?" The rude man asked.

"If you're so important why not just assign one of your servants to wait for you as His Majesty has done?" Baziwood thought, but not wanting to make a scene he said nothing but just shrugged.

"I mean honestly, if you're going to hold a national meeting in E-Rantel for all the 'up and coming' nobles of The Kingdom, you might do well to provide adequate lodging, instead we are expected to find our own places of rest, I'm so insulted... I might just ignore His Majestys The Sorcerer Kings invitation after all!" the idiot scoffed. Baziwood again said nothing, not out of politeness but he was literally dumbfounded.

"Is this guy serious? Why would anyone openly talk this disrespectful of The Sorcerer King, in his own capital?" But instead of giving an answer to Baziwoods mental question the man kept talking.

"You know... I once thought about becoming a king..."

"Oh did you now..."

"...but it turns out my plan had a few problems in it, but I won't let that stop me... you know I've come into a lot of money as of late..." The man leaned over and lowered his voice slightly

"... A LOT of money..." He offered with a slight wink. Baziwood had no idea what this man was saying, why he was talking to him, or who he even was, he just stood there perplexed at the kind of people one could find in The Sorcerer Kingdom.

"Well...um...good, luck to you then...?" It was all Baziwood could fumble out of his mouth, his brain was still trying to process the ludacris things this idiot was babbling on about.

"HA! LUCK? I've never needed luck! My brothers were both killed in unlucky ways, maybe THEY need luck!"

"But you just said..."

"NO! Everything I have I've gabbed with my own cold, powerful hands!" The man-made a motion like he was clutching something in his hands.

"God this line is moving so slow... get me away from this moron PLEASE!" Baziwood screamed at the top of his mind's voice.

"Oh and let me tell you..." The man talked on for what seemed like centuries, Baziwood largely just tuned him out instead of choosing to think about the time he was shot with an arrow and nearly killed as a young boy, that memory was more pleasant than having to listen to this person talk.

FINALLY, Baziwood managed to check their group in and escape the clutches of that intolerable man.

"As powerful and terrifying The Sorcerer King is, that man rivals in stupidity..." was the last thought Baziwood spared him. Before long Baziwood walked into the room, his face was rather pale.

"Are you okay, you don't look too well." Nimble remarked when he saw his friend.

"Wine...need lots of wine right now..." Was all Baziwood said as he walked into the room. Jircniv nodded, he too could go for some drink he motioned for Nimble to join them as they drank from the 'never-ending' jug of wine.

"Tomorrow we'll head to the blacksmithing district to see if we can locate Pe Riyuro and ask him if he knows anything about this dwarf" Jircniv instructed.

"Your Majesty really thinks this Demihuman will be able to help us?" Jircniv furrowed his brow at the disrespectful tone used to address his friend.

"Even if he cannot, I'm sure he will have some valuable input to give us, plus I would not miss a chance to talk to my good friend." Jircniv puts an emphasis on the last two words. His knights gave him an apologetic look and nodded as they returned their attention to their drink.

Morning came soon enough, the bustle from the night before had all but tapered off and it was no time at all till the three found themselves walking onto the streets. Jircniv wore dark brown pants that were a few notches below in quality that he was used to, but were still nice nonetheless, his shirt was silk and covered in a long black coat that yelled "money". This was the first time he had ever gone out in public without his crown, it was oddly satisfying. Nimble wore a well-made button up the middle town jacket that matched the dark green pants he donned. Finally, Baziwood wore no jacket but just a long-sleeved shirt that buttoned high up on his neck, over the shirt he had a black and red vest that went well with his black pants.

"I'm sure I don't need to remind either of you, but don't refer to me in any royal manner when in public too loudly, understand?" They both nodded. As they headed to the district of their choice they saw a small commotion down the streets, an adamantite armor-clad warrior with a flowing red cape behind him was talking to and with some passerby on the streets, Jircniv knew that this was Monon, the 'raven black' Adamantine class adventure, the "Hero of E-Rantel". And he recognized what he was doing, P.R. work. He was making his presence known, and reminding people that "I'm still here for you!" Jircniv routinely engaged in such things himself... though surrounded by undercover anti-assassin bodyguards. He guessed that Monon was by himself, at any rate, he didn't want to get caught up in that so they took a side street. He hurried a turn and came face to face with it...Death Knight

The thing that was mere inches from his face was large, looming and menacing. Jircniv froze he had no idea things like this were just walking around the streets.. he had heard about it, but now he understood it. The evil knight stood there looking down on The Emperor with pure hate in its eyes. It slowly took a step back and made room for them, the three walked past it in dreaded silence... Nimble more than the other two seemed especially on edge by the Death Knight. After they had cleared the alleyway they all let out a gasp and remembered to beath.

"What...what the fuck is wrong with this city? How do people just walk about with this thing looming about?" Nimble asked, louder than he should have.

"Nimble, relax, there is no reason to fear it if we don't give it a reason to attack us" Baziwood directed. Nimble swallowed and nodded but still unable to stop his legs from shaking a bit. After not too long they came to the district they wanted, the smell of fire and the sound of a hammer hitting metal filled the air.

"So... uh, where do we start? Split up or..." Baziwood began.

"No, he'll be in only but the highest quality stores," Jircniv said as he saw a female rabbit demihuman walk by.

"You! Rabbit woman!"Jircniv said in an all too "emperor's" tone. The Demihuman stopped and looked around then garnered the rude blonde man was addressing her.

"Um...yes?" The Demihuman said slightly annoyed.

"Know where I can purchase raw adamantine ore?" He asked bluntly. The Rabbitman thought for a second about telling him to screw off, of maybe direct them to the nearest "orc brothel" instead but decide to earn some karma and just answer the man's question honestly.

"That way." She pointed toward a road that leads to the edge of the district.

"Not many 'none blacksmiths' ever want that stuff so there really only one place you'd be looking to go." And with that, the Demihuman directed them to their destination. As soon as they entered the store Jircniv ears perked up when they recognized his friend's voice.

"The last ore you sold me was not as pure as I need, please you MUST have something more suited to my needs, yes?" A Quagoa with white fur and red markings was pleading desperately with a dwarf who was also pleading with the Quagoa.

"Sir Pe Riyuro, please like I told you yesterday...and the day before that... and the day before that...adamantite ore is exceedingly rare, I only get new shipments of the stuff every few months or so... I don't know what else I can tell you!" The dwarf tried to explain.

"This...this is because we used to eat your kind isn't it? You just don't want to sell me any because I'm Quagoa!" Pe Riyuro pounded on his chest.

"Sir Pe Riyuro... we are all members of The Sorcerers Kingdom now, we have learned to let go of such past conflicts in favor of a brand new future... I'm hurt you would say that Pe Riyuro!" The Dwarf cried without a sarcastic bone in his body. Pe Riyuro looked down and lightly kicked the ground accepting the rebuke.

"Y...You're right... It's just I fear if my children don't grow up to meet the expectations of the Sorcerer King... I'll be forced too... once again..." Pe Riyuro pleaded.

"Speaking of which!" Jircniv said in an overly loud voice as he approached the two with his arms open. The two turned to look at who was talking to them so abruptly.

"...How did your young ones enjoy the last batch of ore I sent?" Jircniv said now donning a large smile. Pe Riyuro blinked a few times then his eyes grew wide.

"J...Jircniv! What is the... why are you... Jircniv!" the Quagoa exclaimed in recognition of his best friend. The two approached and shook "hands".

"Well, it just so happens I'm on a "super-secret" mission for His Majesty!" Upon hearing those words the dwarf decided he might have some ore shards after all, but he'd have to leave right now to go look... and it might take the rest of the day. Pe Riyuro no longer cared.

"Well... this is a surprise, I never thought I'd see you again so soon!" Pe Riyuro said loudly.

"It has actually been quite a while, you Quagoa just have no sense of time when you're above ground!" Jircniv said teasing his friend.

"HA! You humans live such short lives, I'm surprised you even have a sense of time, to begin with!" Pe Riyuro retorted! The two laughed, as Nimble and Baziwood stood in silence.

"Ah! Pe Riyuro, these are my friends and guards, Nimble, whom I've told you about, and this is Baziwood!" The Emperor exclaimed as his knights walked up to the other two.

"Just the two? Then the one with the..." Pe Riyuro pointed to his right eye a couple of times.

"No, Leinas is not with me," Jircniv explained. He no longer had a use for that woman, other than keeping her in a place he knew she would stay.

"Mmm well, no matter, it is good to meet the ones who've been keeping my friend alive for so long!" Pe Riyuro offered his hand and they both shook it.

"But Pe Riyuro, I gotta know, how are you able to walk around here in the sunlight like this? Do your species not become blind in the light?" Jircniv asked he had actually been wanting to know this for some time.

"HUH? What? WHO SAID THAT?!" Pe Riyuro flailed his hands around like he was unable to see even a foot in front of his face before laughing.

"But no seriously, our Overlord has provided me with these." Pe Riyuro said as he pulled back his fur that covered his face and they saw a pair of dark spectacles strapped rather snugly across the Quagoa's eyes.

"With these, I can see as easily on the surface as I could underground...SURE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE HAD THESE BABIES ALL THOSE YEARS AGO!" The Quagoa raised his voice loud enough so that the dwarf in the back could hear him, to which they just heard a "HUMPH!"

The group left the store together. Pe Riyuro was the first to speak.

"So tell me, what is this mission that our gracious Lord has you on?" The sarcasm was palpable.

"It concerns a dwarf actually." Pe Riyuro's ears perked up.

"Okay, I'm listening..." Jircniv explained their situation and what had happened up to this point, Pe Riyuro frowned.

"Hmm yeah... actually I think I know of this dwarf, I heard, before His Majesty put my nation to heel, a dwarf made off with some kind of metal ingot that Ainz Ooal Gown gave them to make into some kind rune crafted armor or weapon.." Jircniv looked at his guards in an "I KNEW IT!" look.

"I even hear it was harder than adamntite." The Quagoa said licking his lips as you would when thinking about a juicy steak.

"Yes! Without a doubt, this is the dwarf I seek! As expected of my friend, your information has proven to be very helpful." Jircniv boasted. It was at that moment that a voice broke their conversation...

PART FOUR: Shadows

"I knew it! Soon as I saw you... you're The Emperor of the Bahruth Empire ain't cha!" A man, who was escorted by four others approached the group, from their body language and looks it was clear, the situation had escalated immensely when they were busy catching up. Upon realizing these men meant Jircniv harm the three allies of The emperor instinctively backed up to give Jircniv total cover, however...

"Yup, it's him alright... funny how someone so important would casually just walk around like this!" Another voice came from behind the group snickering, this one was also flanked by four strangers.

"W... What is the meaning of this?" Baziwood demanded. The men gave knowing glances... That's when a chill ran down Baziwood's spine... He knew the look these men had on their faces, it was the look of men who knew they were about to die for a better cause... This was the worst possible case scenario, for whatever reason, all ten of these men... Were willing to die, which meant they knew that when they attacked, it would not be long till the death knight began to swarm.

"See here's the thing... All of us got together some time ago... We wanted to"Kill The Sorcerer King" for killing all our sons and brothers during that time. Nimble winced.

"But hey, how dumb do you think we are? Killing that monster, no, that was just something we 'pretend played at'" One of the men said brandishing a dagger.

"However... What if..." One man began.

"... We could get to the man who asked The Sorcerer King to use such a spell?" A different man finished.

"That's right! I bet The Sorcerer King wasn't even going use that strong of a spell, to begin with! To be honest, even though we all hate him...Living under his rule has been great... fantastic even!" the men all nodded.

"So maybe The Sorcerer King does NOT "hate the living," Some of us think he might have even been human once himself! Why else would he care about lowering our taxes so low, and providing so many free services?" Another man said.

"So we began to think another way... maybe "His Majesty" The Emperor Jircniv is the reason The Sorcerer King killed our boys!" Another older would be assassin growled.

"Kill enough of The Kingdoms soldiers so they can never harm The Empire and you will back his reign over E-Rantel... Sounds more like the truth every time one of us said it." A younger man added. Nimble instinctively went for his sword... but found only air. They had become too lax in this town. These men were prepared to die, all they needed to do was rush all at once and at least one might get to Jircniv before any of the death shadows began to move.

"Shit shit shit..." Pe Riyuro muttered, his keen military mind understood how badly they had been flanked. He could easily kill the group of five in front of him, and the two guards would also protect Jircniv from the other group, until he could make his way to the other end to help them out, however it was the two hanging back behind both groups that looked like casters that worried him, a well placed 'area of effect' spell, even a weak one, would be annoying to deal with. And if Pe Riyuro wanted to assault 'his caster' then he wouldn't be able to run over and help Nimble and Baziwood deal with 'their caster' as he killed the easily beatable civilians... which meant... at least one of these casters, and maybe even an assassin would hit Jircniv if they got lucky.

"You... understand all of you will die for this?" Pe Riyuro pleaded one last plea, he knew the answer.

"Okay boys, on three..." They all pulled out daggers and the like, some just broken shards of glass, or a sharp end of a stick, this "assassination" had been thrown together at just the last moment. The troublesome casters began to mutter something.

"One..." The men steeled themselves for their final act of revenge for their families. Red energy began to form from one's hands, as the other caster on the other end of the fight had green energy form around his hands. These men were just going to try and keep Jircnivs guards busy while these castes used ranged attacks, and the fact that they were in a somewhat narrow alleyway meant dodging would be very hard.

"Two..." Pe Riyuro cracked his knuckles as large, deadly claws were brandished, he snarled and started to revert to a 'half-feral' state, 'LIKE HELL I'LL ALLOW YOU TO BRING HARM TO MY FRIEND..." Pe Riyuro yelled out. Baziwood and Nimble simply backed up against their Emperor trying their best to be human shields for the incoming magic attacks hoping none of them had crossbows to boot. Jircniv knew they would die for him, he had to make a run for it to the nearest guard to live, he would not let their bravery go to waste!

"THR..." The man began before something happened. There was a flash of blades all around them the sound of metal slicing flesh rang out all in an instant, arms and bodies hitting the ground soon followed. eleven of the of twelve assassins fell to the ground in unison, only the man left counting was standing.

"..EEee..." He trailed off, he looked around, all his friends were... dead? Even their backup was cut down!

"I heard the kind things you said about His Majesty, so I decided I would let you know this before you die..." A short individual said wiping blood from his long curved blade before returning it to his sheath, he was covered in black cloths that seemed to be made of a very well made fabric, his head and face were covered with a 'ninja' mask, and his eyes were pitch black, he had a red piece of cloth tied around his right arm.

"The ones who perished by His Majesty's spell were able to achieve the greatness that none in their position would ever come close to achieving, for they were able to personally feel the effects His Majesty's power before they served their final purpose of helping this great Kingdom!" The short, dark individual said calmly.

"Imagine their rapturous joy knowing it was THEY who provided the fuel for the dark young so that so many of their friends may also know the joy of being able to experience his majesty's power and magic! Truly, I envy them for they were assigned a purpose by His Majesty, to which they performed flawlessly." The mysterious man said as he nodded his head.

"Vh...Vhat err... wh... WHO ART HOOO!" The man was so stricken with shock that forming words was beyond him.

"Who am I? Why does that matter? If you must know, I am called a 'Hanzo' " He said calmly as he walked closer to the terrified man, the other four members crowded together and just watched in amazement.

"P...please...dister Handzooo! I... I blidn't nean it! I... I..." The man screamed falling to the ground. the steeled resolve to die all but gone when he realized they had failed.

"No, you seem to be mistaken, my name is not 'Hanzo', it's what I am." He finished calmly as he issued a fast strike across the man's neck so fast nobody saw him move. It was fatal. The dark man turned to the terrified quartet.

"I am sorry Emperor Jircniv for you having to deal with these untamed brutes, but it does seem I managed to not get any blood on His Majesty's or his friend's clothes!" The Hanzo said nodding in satisfaction. When the shock had worn off, Pe Riyuro was the first to speak up. Pe Riyuro looked at the distance that all the bodies were from one another, the speed this Hanzo must have had to move to kill both casters at once...

"Um, thank you, Mr. Hanzo, for your help!" He said returning his claws to their sheathed positions. The Hanzo shook his head.

"No, it's not my name... if you must call me by a 'name' call me..." He looked at his arm affectionately to the red cloth given to him by His Majesty.

"Red, you may call me 'Red'." He said with another satisfied nod.

"Well then Red, may I personally thank you for intervening when you did," Jircniv stated, able to regain his composure. Red shook his head.

"I apologize for "waiting till the last second", at least from your perspective it must have seemed that may. But I wanted to make sure I felt 'killing intent' before I acted, spilling blood on E-Rantel soil is not optimal." The ninja said clicking his tongue at the sight of the, now spreading, blood.

"Um. If that's the case... Could you not have simply 'disarmed' them instead of killing them all? And arresting them?" Pe Riyuro asked, it seemed he understood that from the Hanzo's perspective, the twelve men were probably just standing there trapped in sluggish molasses, he could have just grabbed all their weapons with as much ease as striking them down, even if it was the enemy, Pe Riyuro no longer took any kind of pleasure from killing, not after seeing that red armored demon smiling the way she was as she cut down his men, he never wanted to become something like that, something that revealed in killing so much.

"..." Red seemed to be thinking.

"Maybe... But I've yet to kill anyone in the name of His Majesty... this was a rare opportunity for me! And to be honest, taking prisoners is not "in my job description." Red explained.

"It matters not, I just am glad we're all okay!" Jircniv said honestly stepping over the corpses of the men who tried to kill him. Jircniv offered his hand but the Hanzo looked puzzled by this action so, awkwardly, Jircniv returned his hand to his side. At that time four large shadows moved and four death knights appeared around the dead assassins and began to collect them.

"What...What will happen to their bodies?" Nimble asked curiously.

"They will be brought before His Majesty and in death, they will protect the peace of this town that they just shattered, it is their atonement... and reward," Red said with a casual glance at the head of a man he had rendered off its body.

"Every time someone dies he gets stronger." That chilling reality slightly unsettled Jircniv.

"Well then Your Majesty, I shall return to my position of your unseen guard," Red said with a bow.

"Wait... my guard? Are you not stationed in E-Rantel?" Jircniv asked confused. Red shook his head.

"No, as it is, His Majesty The Sorcerer King values you as an ally. And your current personal protection simply was not up to the "Nazarick standard". Both Nimble and Baziwood frowned.

"But His Majesty understood you might not enjoy having "an undead" always around, so he asked me to keep an eye on you from the shadows" Red explained.

"H...how long have you, uh, been serving as my bodyguard?" Jircniv asked stunned.

"About the time Lord Demiurge delivered the Soul Eater you call 'Biscuit'" Red said honestly. Sweat ran down Jircnivs back. Had this death-dealing machine been with him the whole time? Seeing everything he did? The Hanzo seemed to pick up on this discomfort and offered to alleviate it.

"Ah Your Majesty need not worry too much, I was only around you when in the presence of 'others' when His Majesty was alone I would guard all the exists to wherever you were," Red assured jircniv.

"So then you were around when I was with her and you saw us night after night? Together?" Jircniv asked growing now also annoyed.

"Indeed, when a man is with a woman his guard is down, more than usual, at 'those' times I would station myself even closer than usual to his majesty!" Jircnivs eye twitched.

"H...How close exactly?"The Hanzo thought for a second at Jircnivs question and walked about one foot away from him then stood still.

"About this close..." Jircniv frowned but realized that there was no perversion in Reds 'closeness' what he said was very true. The idea that this man had been but a foot away as he performed with that woman still was unsettling beyond belief.

"So then it's you! You are the reason that I sometimes do not feel alone when I am alone!" Jircniv said feeling so much better that he was not going mad... least not yet.

"Ah no, that's..." Red paused.

"That's right, it is as You Majesty has guessed..." If the Hanzo had pupils they would be darting back and forth nervously.

"Um...Red, in the future, now that I know you are here... will you give me my 'alone time' with that woman?" Jircniv said quietly to him. He heard Pe Riyuro snickering behind him. The Hanzo shook his head.

"I'm sorry but I take my orders, not from you, however, I have been permitted to lie to you, and say that I will leave you alone at such times." Jircniv eye twitched again...

"what's the point of saying that..."

"Ah, although as lying isn't in my 'job description' either, I am not very good at it." The Hanzo said truthfully. All four of them rolled their eyes in unison.

"Well then, um you may return to your position... farthest away you are allowed to be," Jircniv added. Red gave a bow and vanished before everyone's eyes. Jircniv scratched his head and was annoyed to see a few strands of hair fall loose.

"Never a dull moment in The Sorcerer kingdom!" Pe Riyuro exclaimed trying to settle everyone's nerves and slapping Jircniv's back. The four of them moved out of the alleyway they had fallen into in order to speak privately. They began their walk back to the room Jircniv had rented before talking more.

"It would seem you had the best of luck running into Aura, her wolf will find that dwarf if he's in that forest." At the same time, Pe Riyuro said this... two figures cloaked in the shadows of a building watched at them. from across the street.

"Wow... Did you see that?" A short hooded individual said to another hooded figure that was taller than itself.

"Yeah... That sure would have been a nasty surprise when I made MY move on Jircniv..." The female of the two said with a slight giggle.

"Could you handle it?"

"Not a chance." The female said giggling and pulling an exaggerated shrug that revealed dozens upon dozens of "adventure ranks" plates...all of them made of adamantite. The short male figure eyed them suspiciously.

"Where did you even get those from? You could add up all the adamantite adventures that ever existed and not be able to complete that, still ridiculous, outfit of yours. He spat.

Giggling like a person on the edge of ecstasy or madness she swayed her head back and forth over and over and she spoke.

"No... that was my old game... this new one is harder, much harder." She growled before licking her lips. The older man looked up at his crazy new boss.

"No.. Now I only get to take off a "tag" after I have killed an adamantite level adventure...Or anything stronger than one." She proclaimed proudly narrowing her purple-hued eyes at Jircniv, or rather, at the thing that was standing in his shadow. The bald pale figure sighed hopelessly.

"So...Lets say with your new-found life you manage to do this... RIDICULOUS game of yours, you what... Fight naked?" He asked, picturing her thus for a second before banishing such thoughts to the realm of the forgotten. She giggled again.

"OF COURSE! That's the WHOLE POINT! Then... Then I would be strong enough to maybe..." She shook her hand in anger and frustration.

"You really intend to get your revenge on HIM, naked? You're even crazier than I thought!" He said flabbergasted. She hummed a little bit while fantasizing in her head killing the evil litch that had once crushed her to a pulp like so much juice from an orange, completely naked, her eyes rolled back in her head as she pictured "violating" the corpse of the litch, that she hated more than anything, after killing him.

"No...No... I'd never be able to kill him... I'm crazy, not stupid." She said licking her lips again but snapping back to reality.

"So then what? What's your big "revenge" plan?" He asked her slightly relieved she knew enough than to try and fight Ainz Ooal Gown a second time.

"Simple... Since I can't kill HIM, I just gotta find the ones he likes... his favorite toys... and BREAK them." She growled now with a furious expression on her otherwise cute face. She pointed at The Emperor.

"And if I can help pay off what I owe to our friends who brought us back for a chance to even cause him grief or pain...all the better." She scoffed.

"So which is it? You were gonna kill The Emperor because he presented an easy chance... or so we thought... are we back to plan A, the village girl with the goblins? That's still a large task... especially with one of those... maids hanging about." She laughed...

"No, I lied to you, I was gonna let you try and kill that village girl, and when the maid showed up to save her, I was gonna use this on her!" The hooded female said showing him a strange bracelet.

"Yeah... I was gonna ask about that... it doesn't match the rest of your gear." He said cocking a dubious eye at the strange, yet immensely powerful object. She brought it up to her eyes and peered at it with fascination...

"When I bought this... the guy said I can only use it on one person but it won't work on any of the really strong ones we've heard rumors about for some reason, he said not to try it with the "very strong," She said frowning.

"Like that...maid", He said shivering at the thought of his once-proud image being fried like a tree struck by lightning.

"No... It should work on those maids... It's the ones we were told to never approach..."no matter what"... they are the ones this won't work on... So I wanna target one of those maids he acquired in the Holy Kingdom. I really wanted to use it on the black-haired maid that killed you, but I think the one with the braids we've heard about in the village would be a good choice as well..." She said with a sneer.

"Okay fine...But what'll it do to her?" He asked still casting a look at this strange bracelet. The smile on her face became as wicked as it ever could be.

"No fun in telling you now is there? Just wait for the time... ANYWAY, that's down the line still, we haven't seen any of the maids still... I was hoping one would appear when he was attacked just now, but it's not worth using on that dark guy that showed up out of nowhere... I don't think.

"If this thing is so powerful...Why doesn't he just use it? Why sell it to you?" He asked still doubtful this thing was so strong it could beat one of those... THINGS.

"Probably because he never leaves where he is at." She said thinking about the odd location their new benefactor lived and worked called a guildhall.

"And it may make me vanish entirely if the spell goes wrong..." Clementine frowned at the conditions she had to meet to use her item.

"Ah I see, so it will kill you then? That is indeed a steep price to pay..." The older man said nodding. She shook her head still locking her eyes onto her favorite item in the whole world.

"No, you were not listening to me, I'll be gone, not dead, so pay attention because I'll be different after I use it, okay?" She asked growing serious and somber for the first time. She had to make sure the attack this thing could do worked.

"Okay... So if... HEY WAIT! YOU WERE GONNA USE ME AS BAIT?!" He said just now remembering what she had said so casually just a minute ago.

"Don't worry! I need you to be alive, because when I change... You gotta kill the whole lot of em and use that necklace he sold you!" She said pointing at his recently purchased amulet. He looked down admiring the pendant that would allow him to cast a particular spell... Once thought only to be in the realm of the gods or make-believe, once a day... But what a thrill it will be when he gets to unleash its power, a wicked smile crossed his face...even if using it will cost "experience points" Whatever those are...

"I see, so that's the whole plan." He said while smirking.

"No... That's when the real plan will begin!" She said cackling evilly. He once again looked at her with a suspicious look.

"Okay, so you never answered me... We gonna kill this guy or that village girl?" He asked again. Again her head swung back and forth so her short blonde hair poked out from her hood, she seemed to be playing a game of "eeny miny moe".

Finally, her head stopped bobbing and it stopped as she reached her decision. Another evil grin spread across her face... "Hey... Isn't that village girl married to that one boy we snatched up that one time?" He let out an evil cackle as he knew where she was going with this.

"Indeed..." He said with a sneer, he was glad, the goblin village would be an easier target than The Emperor would be, at least now that they know about that thing".

"Mmmhmm... So now the only question is... Do we torture and 'play with' the girl as we make him watch...Or do we break him painfully and listen to her screams..." Her head bobbed back and forth once again.

"Hmmm...We could have our fun with her, as he watches... Then I could bring her back as a zombie after we've finished with her, and let her eat him alive... Of course, she will still have her human mind, but I could make her body do anything I want once I raise her...So we could even have more fun with her after that..." He said nodding devilishly. The girl slapped him on the back in a playful manner.

"I KNEW I KEPT YOU AROUND FOR A REASON!" The look of excitement in her eyes made him even a little excited. Then Just as a flip had been struck she became deadly serious.

"But that's only if we subdue that maid... And get around the goblins..." She said darkly, indeed a quest with such a rich reward would be very hard to make happen.

"Yeah about that... I think I have an idea on how to deal with them... And maybe even that maid, if we are really lucky!" He said patting his pocket. She looked surprised that he had something up his sleeve she didn't know about. He smiled and pulled out a small white object that looked like a horn of some kind.

"Whats it do?" She asked. He admired it lovingly as it had cost him a pretty copper or two.

"If we get in a tight spot, I can use this summon a huge army um, I think..." He said shoving it back into his pocket where it would be safe.

"You think? She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"As I said, when he sold me this, he said certain conditions had to be met... and the worse situation we are in the better it will be, I dunno, I'm saving it for a backup plan as it sounds kinda risky." He thought maybe he'd been ripped off after all.

"Okay then...Let's go make a cute girl cry..." Clementine said as she began thinking of all the fun she would have with that boy's wife. Khajiit smiled as well.

"But I'd hate to lose an opportunity to kill Jircniv as well..." Clementine thought before snapping her fingers.

"Tell you what, follow Jircniv's group and if they leave E-Rantel... Use that," she said pointing to his necklace again.

"Ummm... Didn't you JUST say we need this for your plan?" Khajiit spat. Even still he could back up her plan if the necklace failed still. Having just one plan is why they lost before... well that and because they had bad luck running into "those things".

"It will be fine, I always have a backup plan... Just don't use it inside E-Rantel..." She warned.

"Yes, I can only imagine the commotion it would bring down on us... Plus it's casting range is limited to my sight... If they are in an open field I could hit them at full force... it will probably even kill that Soul Eater and Dark one we just saw... " He shook his bald head at the thought of the power of this thing, or rather what was contained within it.

"Okay then, I'll head to the Goblin Stronghold of Carne... Sneaking in shouldn't be too hard especially if I can get some kind of escort most the way there, I'll lay the groundwork for your... big surprise, should we need it. But mainly I just need to wait for a maid to reveal herself...

"What if you are caught before you can use "it" on the maid?" He asked a very valid question.

"See that's what I've learned since my time as a corpse... I no longer underestimate people, if this "maid with braids" Can't see invisible people it'd be a real pain... I'm assuming she will have some kind of ability to either see, sense, smell, hear me... Something... Point is, I'm sure she won't just kill me when I'm found out. If this maid wants to "toy with me" for a bit... That will be her undoing." A wicked smile crossed her face.

"You seem to be assuming an awful lot about a person you've only heard rumors about..." Khajiit reminded his sadistic boss.

"I know she's strong... And she only 'reveals' herself when a certain two are threatened it would seem from our "villager" that's been giving us unknowingly, tidbits of info... So I doubt she's kind... and I know a thing or two about how people who not kind deal with weaker people." Clementine said clenching her teeth as she remembered her favorite kill of all time, the little caster girl who liked to play dress up, just remembering the way she screamed, cried and pissed herself from the pain, it really was great Clementine thought smiling wistfully.

"So you see... My whole plan depends on her being overwhelmingly stronger than me, and a bit arrogant about that strength, if she falls under these categories." Clem looked up at the sky, the sun now high above them, the lunch bustle would soon start.

"I'll win for sure!" The hooded assassin sang out. Her sudden outburst caught the attention of a Death Knight that was standing guard, He looked over at the two cloaked individuals. Clementine put one finger to her right eye and pulled down while sticking her tongue out at the knight that was glaring death at them.

"Don't push your luck, Clem..." Khajiit said nervously.

"What, can't you control those things now or something like that?" Clem asked puzzled.

"No.. I've...I told you what I was able to do all that time I was training!" Khajiit growled. Clementine just shrugged as they kept tabs on The Emperor's group.

"Fine, I'll tell you again, since I 'hit a wall' on my ability to summon and control undead..."

"You mean hit your limit." Clementine reminded him snarkingly. He shot her an angry glance but just kept speaking.

"...I decided to apply my efforts in other directions once it was revealed how many summoned undead the, now public, Ainz Ooal Gown has. So I learned the art of 'banishing undead' that is to say, send undead away to where they came if they should have not been created from "natural causes". he told her, hoping this would be the last time he'd have to.

"Ah! So, but wait you can just... Send them back, like that?" She asked snapping her fingers. He shook his head, I have to still cast the spell, which takes a while. Even then, I cannot move myself, all my concentration and mana must be maintained on such a powerful entity, furthermore the most I'd be able to banish it is 20 to 30 seconds before I run out of mana."Khajiit explained once more. She snickered but as the crowd was now starting to appear they pulled up their hoods and lowered their voices even more in order to maintain cover until they parted ways.

"Okay, I'll begin to make my way to Carne, you have fun with The Emperor if you get the shot." She said parting and walking toward the exit gate of E-Rantel. There was a cart there with a middle-aged man, woman, and little girl.

"Excuse me, are you fine folks headed in the direction of Carne Fortress?" Clementine asked with a smile on her face.

"Uh...yes, we uh, we're actually headed there, to be honest." The old man said. Clementine clapped her hands in exaggerated joy.

"Well, I just so happen to be an adventure headed there as well! WHAT LUCK! If you let me tag along and ride next to your adorable little girl I'll only charge some food at supper time for 'round the clock protection! I may not look it, but I'm pretty strong! How about it?" She said putting on her most friendly smile and flexing at the little girl, it made khajiit sick.

"Well the roads are safe now that The Sorcerer King has his dea...his knights patrolling them, so I don't really see the need too..." The old man said smiling.

"OH Come on! Ya rweally trwust a bunch gross and stinky undwead?" She directed the juvenile question at the little girl as she pinched her nose making a super exaggerated "I smell something bad" face. The little girl giggled and put her hands over her mouth.

"Come on daddy? Can the nice adventurer come with us?" The young girl asked pleading with her father.

"Yeah, daddy can I?"Clem said batting her eyes at him. The wife frowned a little bit. The father looked at his wife then shrugged in a "you know I can't say no to our little girl!" The wife rolled her eyes and gave a "get on" wave with her hand. Clementine clapped and sat next to the little girl, she giggled as her new friend made a silly face at her. She pulled her hood back up over her head.

"So, what's your name little one?" She asked in a soft voice.

"Belise! Belise Tarnel! She said with a huge smile befitting her innocent age. Clementine pointed at Khajiit.

"Well Belise say "goodbye" to my friend over there!" Clementine said giving the most chilling smile Khajiit had seen her give. Clementine made silent "bye-bye" with her mouth as she looked hungrily at the little girl's cute face.

"BYE BYE, MISTER FRIEND!" The cute girl yelled waving her hand back and forth.

"Byyeeee byyeeee friend!" Clementine said in a tone that had a certain implication attached to it. As the cart shrank away Khajiit shook his head, he hoped their ends would be quick, but he knew all too well the tastes of his, now, boss. He shrugged and took a place where he would see The Emperor leave in the morning.

As the cart she sat upon, was pulled down the road, Clementine patted her lap for the little girl to sit upon it. She giggled and jumped up and sat where instructed. Clementine wrapped her arms around the girl in a far too familiar manner but the little girl paid it no mind.

"So, Belise what kind of games do you like to play?" The little girl thought for a while then smiled.

"I like to play "touch me or your dead", she said giggling. Clementine's eyes grew wide with wonder and a smile appeared on her face.

"Oh? And how do you play that game?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"Oh, well one person is an undead and tries to touch them if they can they that person is undead and has to touch someone else!" She said smiling at the game her friend Ridda used to play before she went away. Clementine laughed, back in her day they simply had just called it "tag".

"Well Belise, maybe we can play later tonight when we're alone." Belise did not catch the undertone of that remark and just smiled a big smile, Clementine wondered how wonderful this girl would look crying, she intended to find out. She looked over her shoulder at the middle-aged couple driving the cart, they were paying attention to the road still. She'd probably just make them watch her play with their daughter all night then kill em before dawn. That was Clementine's favorite game.

However back in E-Rantel The Emperor and his party were sitting in a very nice room set with bright red padded furniture, large glass windows and several other rooms for guests. In the center sat a nicely made marble table that a drunk Quogoa was sitting at.

"Pe Riyuro, please! Slow down, the jug may be endless, but your constitution is not..." Jircniv said jokingly to his old friend who had to develop a taste for human wine.

"HA! If YOU only KNEW... What I had to drink for YEARS underneath that blasted rock... You'd not be so quick to judge... Ugh, it was AWFUL, even the dwarves we had wouldn't touch the stuff!" He said loudly as the alcohol began to take over the Quagoa.

"Just pace yourself is all I'm saying." Jircniv went to slap his friend on the back but remembered the last time he did that he's come away with some cuts on his hand so he kept it to a light pat.

"Nonsense! I've not seen you for so long, we MUST drink till there's nothing left in that neverending jug!" Pe Riyuro exclaimed again, very loudly.

"You know Sir Pe Riyuro, I do believe we may also get along quite well!" Baziwood said laughing and pouring their guest another drink, even though he had two in front of him already.

"Oh HO! And aren't you letting your guard down a bit? Drinking when an attempt was made not hours ago on Your Emperors life!" the Quagoa said teasingly.

"NOPE!" Baziwood said drinking the wine he had poured himself.

"Soon as Red appeared, I officially considered myself on vacation!" Baziwood said toasting the thin air.

"Funny, I don't recall you asking for this 'vacation time',"jircniv said half smiling to let his friend know he was only half-joking.

"Of course Your Majesty, I will not let my guard down even when drinking... You see, even us drinking is part of my plan!" Baziwood said proudly.

"Oh? And what is this "plan" you have that you never felt the need to run by your Emperor?" Jircniv asked leaning in to hear what kind of story his friend is about to tell.

"Well, I'm guessing it wasn't by accident those guys just all showed up, I bet someone pointed us out to them to round them up faster, or something to that effect, either way, there might be a bigger threat out there that we don't know about... And it could be watching us even now...Or at the very least keeping tabs of our movements." Baziwood said nodding to the windows which he had all pulled open so the activities of the ones on the inside could be seen on the outside. They all looked at the windows than at him suddenly aware that this was not a story.

"And if I were watching us say... Right now, I'd wait for our revelry to take hold, by the way, Your Majesty you should drink a bit more, and try to sneak in from any of the various entrances this room affords it to a skilled assassin or magic caster." He said motioning to an open window that was also unlocked.

"Um okay..." Jircniv stated with doubt.

"AND if someone entered this room without any of our permission they would be..." He pointed again to thin air, but this time a low voice answered him.

"Killed immediately."

"NO! Red! We talked about this!" Baziwood yelling at a corner of the room that Red was not in. They heard a small sigh.

"Take him prisoner so you can find out who he is working for..." The formless voice answered with a hint of disappointment in it.

"SO! There you have it, I'm laying a skilled trap that, it would seem, Your Majesty could not even detect." He said with a wink and a smile. Jircnives eyes looked at him with a bit of shock.

"I'm going to assume that's the wine talking and give that last remark a pass." The Emperor said sternly as the humor drained out of his face and was replaced by a stern and serious look. Baziwood looked alarmed that he had accidentally crossed the line of their 'professional friendship'. He quickly went to bow down and apologize, but as soon as he took the loyalty bow and his eyes met the floor he felt a cold fluid pouring over his head and down his well-made shirt. He looked up in surprise as jircniv was clearly suppressing laughter as he poured his drink on top of his knights head.

"Your Majesty is too cruel!" Baziwood remarked, he was half-serious, not only would this wine stain his expensive clothes, but also his bright, long blonde hair!

"I am "The Bloody Emperor" after all! What good am I if I don't spill a little blood now and again." He said, flicking some leftover wine in Baziwood's face. The large knight laughed but then looked over at Nimble who was not drinking but sitting in a chair by himself watching them drink and keeping an eye on the street below their room.

"Nimble! Why not drink with us?" Baziwood said offering his friend a cup. Nimble shook his head in polite rejection and turned his gaze back to the window he sat by.

"Well! Can't win them all', that's a phrasing I heard that little elf girl say once!" Pe Riyuro said grabbing the cup Baziwood had just poured for Nimble and gulping it down before anyone could raise an objection. The events of the night played out much like this till they all settled in, but nothing happened in the night that they slept. As morning broke they gathered in the lobby to discuss "what's next" as they just ended up drinking all night.

"I'd like to head toward Carne "Village". Everyone knew people that still called it "village" did so out of ignorance or technical irony as that was still its official title. But It resembled nothing of a village anymore.

"Any particular reason?" Baziwood asked frowning at the pink hue his once golden hair had, he spent all morning trying to get the stain out of his hair but it would not come out.

"Well as my cover was... Well, I never had any cover did I, Red?" Jircniv asked at nothing. There was no response.

I just feel it's the next logical step at this point." Jircniv said.

"Pluss if Aura's dog finds your dwarf we'll just be that much closer to get him," Nimble said joining the group after finishing paying the tab and signing out. Jircniv nodded.

"Alright, it's settled then, let's get some food then find Biscuit and head there immediately! Pe Riyuro, what will you be doing?" Jircniv asked his friend.

"What? You think I would miss a chance to see this "goblin fortress" I've heard so much about?" Pe Riyuro said with his hands up and out. Jircniv smiled and nodded.

"I wanna get there by noon tomorrow, so let's not take too long getting ready"


	3. Dangerous allies

Clementine walkout out from the bushes cleaning off her hands in a nearby river. As the sun crested up over the hills and cast a bright spot on the open plain before her. She yawned and rotated her neck a couple of times, she'd spent FAR too much time last night playing with that little girl, barely got any sleep at all. Another yawn, much louder this time. She wondered if Belise enjoyed their time together as well? The way she screamed at the top of her voice as Clementine ran after her, really had been loud! Little Belise had been fast, but she had no chance to outrun Clementine. She thought of the way she cried at the top of her little voice as Clementine ran her down when she tried to getaway.

"GOODBYE MISS ADVENTURE!" The little girl said waving as her family finished packing up the wagon. Clementine waved back and gave her little friend a smile.

"Honestly you two were having so much fun last night playing that tag game, we didn't want to tell her it was WAY past her bedtime!" The mother said laughing and hugging her daughter. The father grunted as he put the last of the crates back up to the wagon.

"Well Miss Quintia, it was a pleasure traveling with you, are... you sure you don't want to enter Carne with us?" The father asked.

"No, I'll find my own way in," Clem said smiling and pulling up her hood over her head. The father hit the reins of the horse and the wagon lazily lurched down the road. As soon as the family was out of sight she turned and glared ANGRILY at the dark sentinel that had stopped just as Clementine was about to begin her real game.

"REALLY?! ALL NIGHT!? YOU'RE JUST GONNA STAND THERE ALL FUCKING NIGHT AND WATCH THAT STUPID FAMILY SLEEP?!" The Death Knight just stood there looking at Clementine, ready to come to her aid should she need it... or kill her without hesitation if she tried to bring harm to others.

"Well, the roads are safe now that The Sorcerer King has his Death Knights patrolling them..." She mockingly quoted the father from the day before. Then spat at the death knight, it did not move. She wondered if she had actually spat on it if it would attack her...she decided not to test that question and move off the path to begin her infiltration of Carne Fortress. It was then her underling contacted her by way of [MESSAGE].

"Clementine... heads up, it looks like Jircniv and his group is headed toward Carne village as well... what do you wanna do?" Khajiit asked. She thought for a moment as a smile replaced her frustrated frown.

"You're not still messing around with that family, are you? Hurry up okay thi..." Khajiit began before a very loud voice rang back at him.

"SHUT UP and... and just tell me whatever you have to report." God... she was gonna have so much FUN... She clicked her tongue.

"Right, well, as I said, he's still with that Demihuman, and I'm sure that hooded fellow is still watching, plus there's the problem of the Soul Eater..."

"Okay, new plan! When Jircniv enters the Goblin Fortress, and they are all nice and tidy, THAT'S when you use the pendant!" She squealed with joy thinking about the scene SO MANY people getting caught up in that spell.

"Okay, that's a goo.."

"NO! WAIT!" Clementine spun around and bit her thumb... the village girl and that cute boy, she... she would NOT be denied her fun with THEM no matter WHAT...She slammed her foot down, if only she had been able to satisfy herself with that family last night...with Belise... then giving Khajiit the order to just 'kill the lot of them' would hurt but she would have been sated at least.

"No good... Just meet me where I tell you, we'll go with the original plan until I think of what needs to change... but don't attack Jircniv, let us let him enter and just play it by ear." Clementine said.

"Play it by what... an ear?" He asked confused. She sighed with frustration.

"It was just something I overheard that merchant saying... It means we'll just do whatever the current situation calls for, alright? now meet me..." As Clementine thought of Belises' smile and laugh she clicked her tongue a second time.

"Lucky little brat!" She glared angerly at the ground but tried to let the frustration go, she had a mission to do after all.

However, some ways southeast a very nice carriage being pulled by a very powerful looking undead made it's way to its destination of Carne.

Inside the carriage was pleasant enough, it had the ability to stay at a nice temperature no matter the condition outside. Jircniv wondered if Red was in, on or running beside the carriage, he guessed the second of the three and knocked on the ceiling a few times.

"Yes?" A voice answered from outside.

"How much farther till we reach Carne Village?" Jircniv asked loudly.

"...As I have never been there myself I do not personally know... However, there are signs here and there." Red answered.

"Oh, and what do they say?" The Emperor asked, again loud so Red could hear. (He did not need to do this as red could hear very well)

"I...I do not know, as I cannot read" Jircniv sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Then why tell me that..."

"You can't read?" Jircniv asked a tad surprised.

"It's...not in my job description." The Dark Assassin answered truthfully.

"Your Majesty, I think we should be arriving at Carne in less than half a day, we will meet Your Majesty's requested deadline of Noon, or close to there abouts," Nimble answered looking out the window to gage where the morning sun was. Jircniv nodded then looked at Pe Riyuro with an unbelievable look, he was sitting there, with the jug of wine drinking it like water.

"How can you drink so much this early?" jircniv asked astonished. Pe Riyuro just gave him a look that implied "What?"

"We Quogoa don't get what you and the dwarves call, a "hangover" Pe Riyuro said with some bit of pride.

"Well you can still get drunk so take it easy..." His friend reminded him out of genuine concern. Pe Riyuro nodded with agreement.

"Fine, fine, this will be the last I'll drink for a while." He said putting the jug back underneath the seat where he found it.

"Mmmhmm, and when is 'for a while'?" Jircniv knew his friend all too well.

"Why, when we eat lunch of course!" He said with a grin, The Bloody Emperor simply chuckled. Baziwood was still fussing with his, now half pink hair. Jircniv gave a little snort but caught his laughter when his knight looked at him with a "why me?" Look on his face.

"By the way, Your Majesty might be keen on knowing that I think we are being followed." The Hanzo informed everybody in the carriage. Their eyes all met and the tone became serious.

"What? By whom?" Nimble asked surprised at how casually Red had mentioned something like this.

"I am sorry, but I do not know the person following us, although he was there with another one when Your Majesty was attacked by that mob," Red explained in a calm tone.

"W..What?! Why did you not tell me." Jircniv asked a tad angrily.

"As they did not attack I only assumed they were onlookers, it's not until now I've deemed their actions suspect." The Hanzo answered. they all kinda gave one another a "Yeah" look then Jircniv spoke up.

"Is it just one?"

"Yes, it is a man riding a Soul Eater, he is wearing what looks to be a black cloak... I... I don't think he knows I can see him, he's not very good at concealing himself." They looked at one another worried. How did their pursuer have a Soul Eater of their own? Maybe he was with the Sorcerer Kingdom after all?

"Couldn't he just be with 'The Sorcerer Kingdom? Keeping tabs on us?" Baziwood asked aloud.

"What "tabs" could this person take on Your Majesty that "Biscuit" or myself could not, as "keeping tabs" on Your Majesty's every action is, in my job description, as it were... oh unless Your Majesty has a sign on the back of the carriage that says where we are going... as I cannot read this..."

"Yes yes, I get it!" Baziwood said annoyed.

"Also I believe this man has just cast [MESSAGE]... This action is further suspect." Red calmly said. They all shot glances at one another, they knew this was bad.

"He's not alone, and his "friends" are probably up ahead waiting to ambush us!" Nimble said worried, then he remembered their company, even if they had a Soul Eater to match their own, the Hanzo coupled with Pe Riyuro and even the, now fully armed, two of "The Four". This carriage notwithstanding was a formidable force in its own right. Even so, Nimble did not like it one bit, as did neither one else in the carriage, yet there was one weapon inside the carriage that nobody had accounted for and that was...

"I have an idea..." Pe Riyuro calmly said. And that weapon was the shrewd and military genius mind of the Quogoa who was...quite 'literally, 'sipping wine in times of crisis'.

"Red, if I ask you to do something on His Majesty's behalf and safety, would you listen to me?" Pe Riyuro asked the air space above him.

"If it is within my job description, I will try to, yes," Red answered.

"Okay... first things first, they will probably want to hit us before we reach Carne... so... let's give them a shot!" The Quagoa said with a smile brimming. Their tail made note of the fact when the carriage stopped moving when it reached a place next to a tree and a small river, the wheel appeared to have fallen off, this was perfect! Khajiit cast [MESSAGE] as soon as he realized what had happened so he could inform his boss.

"Clem! Clementine! I have news, the carriage that Emperor Jircniv is on just broke a wheel! They are pulled over and stationed over a giant tree next to some small stream... and a very large rock." This could be a good chance for us!" The bald necromancer said excitedly. Clementine thought carefully for a second, this was a good spot to attack them... she knew this because it's the very spot she had planned to play with little Belise.

"I know the spot...is... IS THERE A FUCKING DEATH KNIGHT KEEPING WATCH?!" She sneered and ground her teeth.

"No, I don't believe there is, the last one I saw was over two hours ago and it was headed back to E-Rantel. So we are clear I think, from this side at least..." Khajiit explained.

"Hmmm yeah, I'm not far from that spot either... there hasn't been any activity this way for some time... this is almost 'too good to be true'." She giggled.

"So... What's the play here boss?" He asked, knowing [MESSAGES] would run out soon.

"Alright, has anyone gotten in or out of the carriage at all?" She asked putting her plan together.

"No... It, it looked like that Soul Eater that was pulling the carriage left them and ran toward E-Rantel, which means he'll be passing you, you should be careful... but other than that..." The necromancer reported.

"Okay, he'll be trying to get help... too bad you couldn't confirm the invisible guy riding him on his back..." No, if THAT happened then she would have suspected a trap, assuming that dark assassin was lurking someplace close to the carriage unseen, was the best bet.

"Alright, now's the time to use your pendant, he gave you, hit that carriage with everything you have! Then [MESSAGE] me after."

"You don't want me to wait till you get here... it's going to be QUITE the show! It'd be a shame to miss it..." He said with a disappointed tone but still very happy for what was about to come.

"No... Fast painless deaths don't "do it" for me, no matter the spectacle. So long as you know for sure nobody other than that Soul Eater thing has left... and that Jircniv is in the carriage... besides, I might make it in time to see the show anyway if this thing is as big as he said it will be." She said remembering the amount of gold they had to pay for such an item.

"I saw him get in with my own eyes, along with his two guards and that Demihuman... None of those have left the broken down carriage... Far as I can tell, even if they SOMEHOW managed to get out and make it to the rock or tree they are by... It wouldn't matter... There's gonna be nothing left at the bottom of this valley soon, but I can see both sides of the carriage, nobody has gone in or out so..."

"Yup do it... I'll be listening to "the sound"... I'll be close enough to where I can offer you some assistance if that assassin thing attacks you if you can hold out for a few minutes... do you think it might have seen you?"

"I don't think so, even assuming he was on the roof and invisible, I doubt he could make me out as a threat, I'm pretty good at this following thing as it turns out!" Khajiit said proudly, Clementine gave his stupid boast no heed, even if he died, so long as she escaped with it. The plan could go forward... with some slight tweaks of coarse. Meanwhile, Jircniv's group huddled together in silence, they were listening for any sounds of an attack.

"I don't know... Just waiting here like this, waiting to get attacked, it seems like a bad idea..." Baziwood said. Pe Riyuro shook his head, no this will work, we WANT them to attack us, that's why I made the Soul Eater go away, to give them a perfect shot as we are sitting there, "broken down". Pe Riyuro nodded in satisfaction.

"When they spring their attack, it will be fierce, to be sure, but I think we can weather it, my plan has accounted for this... Do not worry... The fact that they are taking this long to attack us is a bit strange, but it's fine... Just be ready to jump out when it happens!" Pe Riyuro said getting his claws out and getting ready for whatever was about to befall the carriage.

"I still say we should have sent someone to hide by the rock and tree, that's good, the natural cover!" Nimble said but Pe Riyuro shook his head." No, if they are planning to ambush us and saw some kind of behavior like that, they would know for sure we were expecting them, the fact that they are not expecting us to jump out the moment they begin their assault is the best play we have against this "unknown" enemy, so as I said before 'get ready' for that moment and be silent, this is a plan about timing more than anything..." Pe Riyuro said with a hushed calmed voice, his claws came out and he was listening for the sounds of footsteps... that would be the sound his Quogoa ears were waiting to hear, that would be the moment he was sure of it...

Someways off in the distance at the top of a small hill that overlooked the valley that the carriage sat at the bottom of a figure in a dark robe was raising his hands up with his new amulet in his hands.

Khajiit Focused his might and will into his pendant, he could see the carriage plain as day sitting there like a cage with his prey locked up nice and tight, no matter the strength or integrity of that carriage... even if it was instilled with top tier magical protection... nothing would prepare the occupants for what was about to happen next...

"Oh powerful amulet, give me the power of the gods so that I may render the land before me into naught but burning death, I summon you o spell of the gods! Allow your devastating power to rain down on all the fools that dare to defy me...NOW COME TO ME! (Note: he doesn't need to say a single word to use the pendant nor was he told he had to.)

"FIRE AND DEATH BECOME MINE TO CONTROL...! VERMILLION NOVA!" The caster said as he felt wave after wave of his knowledge, power and experience flow into the pendant he was pointing at the tiny carriage, he suddenly forgot how to cast some spell but it mattered not for... what he saw brought true joy to his black heart, a casting bubble appeared around him, he saw all kinds of runes, and the pendant told him which ones he had to absorb to cast it at full power, he stood there for quite some time amassing the power needed, until at last it was time...

From where Jircniv sat there came a loud rumbling, he had no idea what it was, they had expected to hear many footsteps but that was not what they heard now.

"You hear that? Jircniv asked as there was a rumbling sound approaching. Pe Riyuro nodded gravely and looked up, his fur bristled... something was about to happen and he had to ready for whatever it was, his calculations should account for most of any kind of attack they had to endure... but there was always that chance he could be wrong. He shook his head, no, this was the right plan, nothing else he thought of gave them a better chance at a counter-attack and survival... he just had to be ready and the counter-attack relied heavily on him doing his part.

From the other side of the valley, another hooded figure was looking at the carriage that she had been told about. Even Clementine, who was about a mile away, but now could make out the carriage by the tree and rock, she saw a blue glow way off in the distance and knew that was Khajiit about to cast his spell, but she would be ready, if by some chance they lived through this, she'd run in and finish off the...oh it was starting...

The landscape turned a deep red and then bright as a white-hot bead of light appeared above the carriage, it began to spin and whirl for a second or two before it erupted into a blazing inferno of fire and radiant light, the tree, rock and even the river in the area were gone, and the grass in the area wilted before themselves catching fire, causing the area around the pillar of fire death to burn, however, the carriage remained, some magical barrier was holding out against the onslaught.

"No! It... HOW!?" A drained and very tired necromancer screamed out in disbelief. The paint began to peel and any cloth on the outside began to smoke and burn, the radiant heat alone was penetrating the magic shell, but it was still holding.

Until...

With a loud WHOOSH! All the oxygen in the area was sucked into the blazing torrent, Clementine coughed and gasped for air as the heat wave radiated out over her, she fell to the ground, how ignorant she had been to think anything would survive this kind of raw power. Then the pillar of fire grew smaller but more focused, the smaller it became, the more powerful and violent the onslaught of energy and fire raining down became. And then...cracks.. the magic shell cracked, then shattered, and all the power came raining down onto the unprotected carriage.

It was over. Where once had been a grassy meadow with a tree by a large rock next to a wonderful stream where two girls played a nice game of tag well into the night before... Was only death. Smoke filled the air and the leftover heat made opening one's eye a bit hard. But when Clementine was able to open her eyes she smiled, the carriage was gone, completely and utterly destroyed, well no, there a few bits and pieces of it laying around smoking and on fire, the fact that there was anything left at all spoke to the power of the magic barrier that tried to protect the carriage.

"Ha..haha, aha...HAHAHAHAH!" Khajiit laughed, he no longer had the ability to stand, his life force had been drained far beyond his expectations, he was told to expect a loss in power... but, he could no longer remember any spells past the second tier, even then he felt he didn't even have the mana reserves to cast anything beyond first-tier magic.

But it had been worth it... to tread on the landscape of the gods, was not going to be cheap, just the mere FACT that he had cast the most powerful spell this world has ever seen (he's obviously mistaken by this) means that... for just that brief second, he had risen past the ranks of any and all heroes that ever came and ever will be he was a god for a brief moment in time...

"I'm... I'm a God! I'm a living... God!" He boasted as he broke into maniacal laughter.

"A god? No, I'm sorry, I know of actual gods, and that was nothing compared to what they can do." Khajiit heard from behind him followed by a click of the tongue. Khajiit blinked a few times then turned to look behind him. There stood hunched over his fallen form was a man dressed all in black, he had a red cloth tied around his arm and was holding a curved sword that he was lightly tapping on the ground.

"Who... who are you!" The necromancer asked amazed that he was even talking to someone.

"Why do you humans put so much emphasis on names? Honestly, it's kind of annoying." Red told the drained man while shaking his head.

"You were the one guarding The Emperor... How are you here... why are...?" Khajiit asked still in shock, he didn't know it but he was wetting himself at this time.

"How? Oh, I was here the whole time, as to why... it's because he asked me to..." The ninja said honestly.

"He? He who?" Khajiit asked just as the earth gave way underneath him... claws sprang up and wrapped around the necromancer before dragging him deep below the ground." Just then Nimble and Baziwood sprang out of the hole weapons draw ready to fight.

"No... It's okay, it really was just him, turns out there was no need for you guys to follow up my "takedown" of the caster. The two blinked and looked around before turning around and helping Jircniv out of the recently dug tunnel, leading from the bottom of a smoking crater, where there once been a carriage, with a clever trap door built into its floor. Jircniv must really thank that frog demon for thinking of just about everything.

"But he was casting [MESSAGE] To someone, could they still be up ahead of us?" Jircniv asked. Pe Riyuro shrugged as he jumped out of the hole.

"I'm sorry, but with the available information given to me... my plan for 100% success was only achievable if I focused on the caster..." Trying to trick and capture both parties lowered the success rate of getting the caster... I mean that was assuming he had people to protect him. Pe Riyuro looked annoyed as he realized he had overestimated the enemy's plan.

"This means their plan was to have the other party swoop in and kill any "survivors". But how anyone could be expected to withstand that... is beyond me... which means neither party knew what this spell was really going to do." The Quagoa said nodding and looking at the crater, ash was now beginning to fall over the plain.

"So we should be expecting an attack soon?" Nimble said looking around the battlefield.

"No, the other party must be aware of our victory on this end." Is anyone coming Red? The Demihuman looked up at the Hanzo.

"Well due to the falling ash and debris, I cannot make out any other threats, but I also do not hear anyone approaching footsteps or feel [GREATER TELEPORTATION] active... I think we are in the clear." Hanzo said peering out around all around him.

"Okay, well all we have to do now is 'hold out' until Biscuit gets back here with...Wait didn't the caster have a Soul Eater as well?" Jircniv asked.

"Ah, well I asked it to go back to the stables he rented it from in E-Rantel while he was casting his nice spell," Red answered with his thumb pointing over his shoulder toward the direction of E-Rantel.

"Then that's that... it's a shame to lose the carriage." jircniv said... he'd actually grown fond of it. After a glance around they realized they were out in the open.

"Let's take cover in the hole until Biscuit gets back here with help," Baziwood said, he wasn't fond of going into the ground... but after seeing that kind of power form a single spell, he made peace with it real fast.

"Ah! No problem, I'll build us each a house, a bath and maybe even a jail for our new friend here!" Pe Riyuro exclaimed. They all looked at him in silence.

"Just kidding... But I'll make the hole bigger..." The Quagoa said as he began digging.

PART SIX: The Fortress of Carne

The day in Carne Fortress started like any other day for her, waking at the crack of dawn to the sound of a trumpet not far from her window, she got up, dressed and put her leather armor on, brushed her red hair as she put them into braids and walked downstairs. Nemu could hear the bustle of the goblins doing their morning regimen as she walked outside her personally made home. It was still new and smelled of fresh wood, but living on her own was a big deal, especially since that boy had married her sister. Eating a piece of dried meat she turned to shut her door, but forgetting to lock it, looked at the "message box" it was empty, no personal letters. A troupe of goblins ran by doing drills.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN TOLD!" The sergeant of the troupe said leading them in rhythmic singing running drills. The troupe followed suit to his song and tone. The drill master was wearing the same matching attire as the rest of the very well armored goblins. Black on brown leather armor with some chainmail, they would never do drills in their 'battle ready' plate armor.

"GENERAL ENRI'S SOUP NEVER GETS COLD!" He yelled in the same rhythmic voice as they once again repeated, they all turned and smiled with a little wave or nod as they ran by Nemu, she returned their wave with a smile that they all thought would bring them good luck.

"She smiled at me!" All the goblins thought to themselves. While of course Having Their general greet them was the highlight of their day, Nemu was a "little sister" to the goblins, so they never missed a chance to dote on the "mini general" whenever given the chance. After they passed Nemu she noted they all had a little more 'pep" in their step... it wasn't like what her sister could do now, make a Goblin perform beyond his abilities ever so slightly with a simple command, but she was glad the goblins were trying to "look good" in front of her.

"NEMU!" A voice called out, she turned and saw a boy running toward her, he was a lighter shade of green than the rest of the goblins and leaner in muscle tone, he was the Hobgoblin Agu and Nemu's best friend.

"AGU!" She wove at her friend as he slowed down his run, The well-made leather armor he donned matched hers as they were both made in the Fortress of Carne, while Enri cried at the thought of not seeing Nemu run around in her "cute little dress" anymore, dresses were impractle. The old village life that Carne had once enjoyed no longer was the norm, now every single villager,goblin,ogre and even troll, would walk around when on shift (and usual when not) in matching leather armor that was also lightly enchanted by the magic corps division, although not everyone's armor was enchanted, they promised that with enough time, they would get them all fortified, the blacksmith and magic hut was always operating around the clock. Of course, the goblins that came from the second horn, all had the far superior gear and weapons so did not require any gear made that wasn't made for"around the base" attire.

"How are you... Shouldn't you be at practice?" Nemu asked noting the time of day, this is when the villagers that were training to become Archer class would gather and engage in live target practice.

"Well, I thought that maybe you would wanna join me at practice today!" Agu said with a beaming smile, he really was nothing like the frail, scared survivor she had met him as. Over time he had developed a very good aim and stealth abilities, he even had a "special skill" that some people would sometime be born with, which was discovered as a recourse of his diligent efforts to become more useful to his general.

"It's "live training" day isn't it?" Nemu asked turning up her nose, she didn't mind shooting at straw targets, but the thought of shooting at something running around trying to not get hit... it didn't sit well with her, but the look of "please?" in Agu's eyes won her over, with a sigh and head shake she agreed and they made their way to the archery field.

"HAHAHAHA! YOU DUMB GOBLINS CAAAAN'T HIIIIIT ME! HAHAHAHA" Was what they heard as they approached the range, upon turning a corner they saw the owner of the voice, and to whom he was taunting. There was a line of archers, mostly goblin and but many humans all with their bows drawn. They each had their own table with arrows lined up with a cloth covering above them to keep the sun out of their eyes. They would aim for a second then let loose at will. Their target was a huge green individual, he was dancing around like an idiot donned in, very crudely made armor of wood, some metal and bone over the Carne Uniform leather armor that they all wore. The giant man would then try to run out of the way or even swat the arrows out of the air, most of the time the arrows would bounce harmlessly off his "armor" or just miss altogether, to which more jeering and taunting would be thrown their way.

"GOOD THING THERE IS AN ARCHER DIVISION! YOU GUYS MIGHT MAKE BETTER FARMERS THAN ARCHERS GUAHAHAHA!" As the giant target would dance and sometimes make an obscene gesture. One goblin took extreme aim, as he was actually a member of the archery division, that last jeer hit home.

"Let's see how you like... THIS!" The goblin archer said as an arrow flew through the air. It found its mark between slits of metal that was a plate strapped to the face of this hulking individual. The arrow hit him right in the eye and sunk far back to his skull.

"YYEEEEEE!" The hulking individual cried as he jumped up and down. All the shooting stopped as they lowered their bows. The giant green skin man took off his plate face mask to show that the arrow was still sticking from his eye socket.

"WHO DID THIS! WHO SHOT ME!" The man yelled at full volume. The goblin responsible simple rose his hand above his head."

"YOU, HUH?" The man thought for a second before giving the goblin an exaggerated "thumbs up" pose with his other hand on his hips.

"GOOD JOB!" He cried out in a congratulatory voice.

"NOW LET'S SEE IF THE REST OF YOU FARMERS CAN TAKE NOTES FROM A REAL ARCHER!" The hulking individual cried as he pounded on his chest in a "bring it on" manner.

"Um... Ginz..." The archer pointed to his own eye.

"Huh? OH! RIGHT!" The behemoth said remembering he had an arrow stuck in his eye. Nemu turned away because she knew what came next. The man grabbed the arrow by the shaft and pulled it out with no care, of course, there was a giant yellow eyeball attached to it, at which point Ginz took his eyeball off the arrow and popped into his mouth before chewing then swallowing, a few gags could be heard from to archery line.

"Trolls... I'll never understand them." Agu said taking his place in line. The troll held up his hand to show he had more to say, or to wait till his eye grew back.

"I MIGHT BE HALF BLIND... BUT IS THAT A HALF GOBLIN I SEE?" Ginz shouted, Agu gave a sour look, Ginz always liked to make fun of Agu the most, probably just because he was the youngest. Agu just nodded and gave a "can we get on with it?" hand motion. the troll nodded, picked up his faceplate, strapped it back on and motioned to begin again. The next two hours went on much like that, Nemu sat in the shade as she watched her village try and better itself one arrow at a time. Every so often Nemu would catch Agu looking over his shoulder to make sure she was watching, she would sometime fall asleep at these times, if a goblin noticed this he might clear his throat a little louder than usual to perk her back up.

"OKAY, THAT'S GOOD FOR NOW, GO REPORT TO YOUR NEXT STATION!" The goblin yelled, the session was clearly over but Agu decided to 'accidentally' let loose one more arrow at the talking troll, Ginz must have been expecting this because he simply slapped Agu's arrow out of the air without acting like anything had happened. Nemu walked up to Ginz as he removed his training protection and donned the removed parts of the black and brown armor that everyone else was wearing.

"Do you really enjoy getting shot at so much?" Nemu asked offering the troll a bite of her dried meat. He shook his head in polite rejection wiping the sweat from his face. Agu was now running up behind his friend to join them.

"It's not bad, it gives the trainees a moving target which is hard to get in training, and it keeps me light on my feet... as a troll my dexterity is probably my weakest attribute. Nemu shook her head, it was amazing how well Ginz had learned good manners and edicate, not that you could tell when he was dancing around the field like a fool. When He came to the fort as a child looking for his father and the one "that the skeleton man had slain in our cave" they thought it was revenge he sought, but it was something else. Nemu remembered that night very well...

"Father stupid and weak, mocked skeleton man, skeleton man beat stupid father easy and told him to come here...I hide because I weak and not stupid like father!" The young troll said, he was still a "child" in troll terms, but he still would have been a hell of a fight if he just charged the gates recklessly.

"What do you want?" The goblin that was stationed up in tower asked with a fire arrow trained onto the young troll demanded.

"My old name father gave me Gui, was like his name, I don't want name of stupid weak father, I want name of man who beat father!" The troll said thumping his arms on his chest. the goblin guards stationed looked at each other with confusion.

"I come here to tell you my NEW name! And to be your friend because you stopped stupid, dumb, weak father!" He cried out. It was about this time that Enri flanked by her personal guard made their way to the lookout to see what the commotion was. Enri approached the edge of the gate and looked down, the chainmail armor that fit her perfectly, made a slight noise as she leaned over the railing.

"So then, what is your new name you wish to tell us?" She called down. the young troll took a proud stance and pounded his chest...

"MY NEW STRONG NAME IS GINZ OOAL GOWN!" Everyone blinked at the sound of this name.

"Did he just... say..."

"Yup..."

"He doesn't know better..."

Were some of the remarks Enri made out in the silence of shock.

"Um well Mr. Ginz... while you are welcomed to join us if you behave that uh... particular name, might not go over well too well?

"WHY?! STUPID GOBLINS THINK SKELETON MAN WEAK?! HE IS STRONG! I WILL PROVE IT NOW!" He bellowed loudly, all the archers drew their fire bows as they were expecting him to attack, instead, he shook his hands in a "YOU'LL SEE...I'LL SHOW YOU" motion as he stomped off in anger before they could explain what they meant. What came back... was more than any of them had expected... A lone figure walked out of the forest, a dark black robe hung down around the menacing figure, he had a hood up that did not cover the skull face that was underneath it. On his shoulders were two large red orbs affixed to large white shoulder pads that sat on the creature's shoulders. His chest was bare, showing the bleached white bones of a skeleton... It was the savior of Carne and ruler of E-Rantel it was Ainz Ooal Gown!

However...

""I HAVE NAME OF STRONG SKELETON MAN! I LOOK LIKE STRONG SKELETON MAN! NOW YOU SEE? YOU SEE I AM STRONG? THAT SKELETON MAN IS STRONG?" The large Skeleton shouted in a familiar voice. The figure before them was not the undead King but... A troll... In what could only be described as (crude) "Ainz Ooal Gown cosplay". The 'skull' was that of a long-dead human this troll had strapped to his face, the black robes were dirty and tattered, probably recovered from an abandoned dwelling or carriage. the chest bones were just a series of animal bones that this troll had tied together and wore as a chest plate. However, the 'shoulder pads' were pretty nice. They were made of crude bones of course but the red orbs he used seemed to be of genuine quality, where this troll had found matching, perfectly red round stones... was anybody's guess. After the disbelief wore off, Enri figured how she should play this, Nemu watched up from the shadows, proud to see her sister, once again, giving orders to a thing they once feared.

"You've... got to be kidding me..." The goblin archer said in disbelief lowering his bow. Enri looked at him with a smile that made him blush.

"Uh... YES! Um, we NOW see that YOU have a strong name... So, indeed, if you OBEY ME! the leader of this fort, we will listen to your um... story." She called down. The troll lowered his head deep in thought before speaking up.

"AND YOU KNOW THAT SKELETON MAN IS ALSO STRONG?" He asked with a stern voice, Enri suppressed a small laugh.

"Um YES! INDEED! We know how strong um... AINZ Ooal Gown is, if you uh, talk to us... we will tell you tales of his strength!" Enri called out. At the sound of that the troll began to show his true age, he ran up to the fence and removed his "Ainz mask". he had a look of "REALLY!?" in his open eyes. And so Ginz 'Ooal Gown' became the latest addition to Carne Fortress. In the darkness Nemu frowned... it seems nobody else "caught" what Nemus ears had...

"Did Ainz Ooal Gown really order all those monsters lead by that big troll to attack us last year?" She didn't like the thought that this great man, who had invited her and her sister to his amazing home... would care this little about her village. She shook her head figuring it was more likely that he mistook something Lord Ainz had said...

Nemu was wrenched out of her flashback when a terrible sound made everyone jump from fear. The sky toward E-Rantel turned red and there was a loud BOOM! And what looked like a forest fire on the horizon. Everyone immediately sprang into action, there was no panic, useless cries, everyone had trained for this over and over, they all know their roles to play and how to play them. Without a word, Ginz picked up Nemu and Agu under his massive arms and made a dash to the center of the compound where the most fortified building was. Enri saw Ginz running toward them with Nemu and she breathed a loud sigh of relief, the goblin escorted the troll and children inside the safe house.

"What the heck was that just now?" Enri asked with some distress but mostly bravery, ready to take on anything that would come. Nfirea was behind her with a serious look on his covered eyes.

"We're not sure, but the magic casters recognized that as a very powerful spell... probably 7th tier or higher..." The senior goblin said, he had one hoop earring in each of his long ears and wore amazingly made chain mail, a large menacing blade was strapped to his back.

"Are we under attack?" Nfirea asked concerned. The goblin looked seriously at a map of the surrounding area that the goblins had made. He pointed to an area where a local stream cut through the valley side.

"Our mages said this is the area the "spell went off" or around these parts... it's still quite a ways off from our stronghold, and we had no members out that way...So it might not be related to us, but we are sending the goblin stealth unit to see what is going on, they should be..." He was explaining before another goblin burst through the door.

"General Enri... A Soul Eater from E-Rantel has shown up at our gate, it seems to be related to whatever that was just now!" He reported she gave a knowing nod and as she turned to head to the gate her short white cape flapped majestically behind her.

While nobody had a way to talk to this thing they could tell it wanted to lead them to the source of the explosion, the goblin cavalry unit escorted the Soul Eater back to the source, as well as a way to provide support to the stealth unit, should it be required. Nemu could only look out the window in worry, Agu stood behind her offering her whatever support he could.

Back at the scene of destruction, Clementine looked in disgust at what she saw, not only had he wasted their spell... he failed to even kill a single person. It would seem Khajiit was still as useless as the day he died to that thunder witch. She would have to go forward with the plan alone... if Khajiit was still alive maybe there would be a use for him, but either way, she planned on using the ensuing chaos of this spell to help her sneak into Carne Fortress. She made sure to lay low when a bunch of goblins on wolves ran past her when she snuck towards the castle, the new "stealth and invisibility" gear her new benefactor gave her would help a lot in avoiding the noses and eyes of those wolves, as well move about the compound undetected till she could find something she could use.

It wasn't long till she came upon the fortress, while there were extra guards posted everywhere due to the unexpected commotion, the invisibility had enough time on it so she could run up to and climb a wall with relative ease, a goblin close to her looked in her direction, but as he saw or heard nothing he just kept scanning the area before him. She would need to find a place to hide and lay low until the "cool down" of her invisibility cloak was ready to be used again. She scanned the area and saw a newly constructed house close to her position, she leaped down and carefully scanned the interior, it would see it was empty. Clementine crouched low as her invisibility wore off, she was like a cat on the prowl carefully checking all the rooms.

As she made her way upstairs she saw a bedroom with a single bed that was well made. "Just one person lives here..." She noted then her eyes caught the open dresser drawer, careful Clem walked over the dresser and took a closer look. "A girl lives here..." She thought seeing the type of clothes that were in the dresser, her eyes caught a particularly clothing item. "A young girl..." She thought with a happy tone. Yes, she would "wait" till darkness here... a smile crept across her face as she hummed a little tune silently to herself as she hid in the shadows. While she would lie in wait, Jircnivand company were waiting in their own way at the top of a hill that overlooked a destroyed valley.

"There! Goblins! They are here finally!" Nimble was the first to see them. Riding on white wolves.

"No... The goblins have already been here for some time." Red explained. the members of his group looked perplexed. As it would seem their cover was blown five goblins appeared out of nowhere...

"Sorry to not inform you we were here, but our orders were to remain on standby till the cavalry unit got here, one of the goblins, who was dressed a lot like Red apologized and bowed to The Emperor. He shook his head that it was fine before focusing on the goblins fast approaching them.

"Once we get escorted to Carne Fortress we'll have a better chance of figuring out what to do now..." Jircniv muttered to himself. And before long that is where they found themselves. The large gate slowly swung open as many goblins gave their new guests a warm greeting

There to greet them, under heavy guard was the Goblin general Enri. She stood proud with glistening chain mail that had a silk 'half cape' flowing off the back of it. At her side was a thin 'rapier' type weapon that hung loosely around her slender waist. She had a necklace with a small 'adamantite goblin horn' attached to it to resemble the goblin general horn Enri had used so long ago. It was a wedding gift from Nfirea. Her adamantite boots and gloves shone with all the brilliance that her army knew she deserved.

"Did I hear correct? You are really The Emperor of the Baharuth Empire?" Enri asked shocked, never in a million years did she expect to host such a person. Jircniv gave a slight bow and nod that she returned respectfully.

"I am, but it is unfortunate we meet like this," Jircniv stated. The group retreated back to the center of the compound building from before as jircniv and company explained the circumstances of their arrival. The fortress remained on high alert for the remainder of the time that the Emperor remained.

Enri thought for a second but shook her head about the mention of the dwarf. as it was they had a bigger problem.

"Do we know who this caster was working for? Or how many in the group?" The goblin with the giant sword on his back asked The Emperor's group.

"I was hoping we could, "talk" to the hostage we brought with us Jircniv said, Enri gave a look at one of the goblins that were wearing a dark robe and held a staff in its hand.

"As he is a known caster... one of unknown strength... we are preparing an 'anti-magic' cell for him to be questioned in by His Majesty." The mage goblin answered. "Also we took these off him..." He said as he sat two items, everyone got a chill when they saw one of the two items.

"That is the pendant he used to attack our carriage, the Hanzo said pointing at the expensively made item. As for this other item, he had it in his pocket... we're all lucky he used the pendant instead of this.

Enri frowned with a displeased look on her face.

"We cannot let anyone have that item..." She said as another mage picked it up and place the object into a box for safekeeping. Nobody in Jircniv's group protested her holding on to it for now. She promised that once Lupusregina returned they would turn the box over to her so she could give it to Ainz Ooal Gown, he would know what to do with an item like that. Every important member of the village and goblin army stayed up late talking about plans and strategy until Nemu gave out a loud yawn that broke the flow of the room, it seemed to remind everyone just how tired they all were as nobody in this room even ate the whole day they talked.

"Right, well we need to rest, and as it seems we're not under any immediate threat... it should be safe to retire to our houses for rest," Enri said clapping her hands, they all nodded in agreement. Nemu looked up at her big sister, she didn't want to say anything but she was still a little scared and was going to ask if she could stay with her and Nfirea tonight. However, she caught a slight look of that look Enri gave to Nfirea when they uh... made noise. Her discovery of what that noise was is why Nemu now had a house of her own. Nemu decides to act tough and just go home after kissing her sister and Nfirea 'goodnight'.

"Ginz, would you escort Nemu to her house?" Enri asked the giant troll. He smiled and bowed that was more proper looking that his giant form should allow. Nemu climbed up onto his shoulder as he and Agu took to Home. They stopped first at Agu's dwelling with the rest of his tribe before heading to Nemu's house.

"Thanks, Ginz! She said with a peck on his cheek, the large troll blushed and patted her on the head.

"Want me to stand guard outside your house for a while?" Ginz offered, Nemu shook her head. Ginz didn't have to sleep very much, so he would walk the perimeter of the fortress at night, she didn't want to keep him from that important duty.

"No, just keep a look out for all of us!" She said turning to unlock her door, the big green troll wove 'bye' as he went to do his rounds. She grabbed the doors lock but it was already unlocked.

"Huh... did I forget to lock it this morning?" She tried to remember and decided that was what happened before walking into the dark house by herself. Nemu grabbed a quick snack and some water before using the bathroom before getting changed. She walked into her room and noticed her closet door was open a bit. Shrugging she walked over and opened the door looking for a nightdress. After grabbing fresh garments form her dresser drawer she changed and crawled into bed. She snuffed out her candle then lay back before there was a sudden realization she was not in bed alone.

"Little giiiiirrrlll..." Was what the person next to her said before a hand was placed over her mouth and nose before she knew what was happening there was a heavy and large figure was straddling her and holding her hard against the bed. Nemu tried to scream but could not make a sound with the strong hand over her face.

"Sssshhhhh..." The female whispered into her ear that had a seductive tone to it.

"As much as I'd like to hear you scream... now's not the time for that." She growled into Nemu terrified ears.

"Well... maybe we can have a little fun while I wait for my chance to get that goblin girl...but you have to promise to not scream too loud." She moved her face far too close to Nemu's face. Nemu could feel the women's heavy breath against her cheeks.

"Say... little girl, know of any fun games?" Clementine said with a vicious smile, Nemu's eye shot open with fear upon the realization the woman was also holding a long silver weapon, she ran it's incredibly sharp tip along her cheek. Tears streamed down her terrified face as she once again tried to scream but as she opened her mouth Clementine shoved some kind of cloth into her mouth, effectively gagging her.

"Now, now... screams of fear are so... meh!" She said making a bored face before the wicked smile returned.

"Now, however... screams of pain? " The smile grew even more sadistic. Clementine ran the blade further down Nemu's body, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to hurt. She stopped as she reached Nemu's waist and removed the blade from her before menacingly dangling it between her legs, a cruel smile ran it's way over Clem's face and she giggled. But a strange yellow light suddenly appeared next to them from outside the second story window they were next to, Clementine quickly looked out to see what this light was and realized she was staring at a very angry troll in the face.

"I thought I smelled something weird... Glad I came back to check up on Lady Nemu..." Ginz said before reaching his giant hand through the window and wrapping it around the arm that held the weapon Clementine was holding before yanking her through a wall... the sound of breaking wood cracked but not as loud as the troll bellows at full volume.

"INTRUDER DISCOVERED BY LADY NEMU'S HOUSE EVERYONE COME HERE NOW!" The huge hulking voice was interrupted when a slender sharp blade entered his windpipe. He frowned and gave a "you think this hurts?" look at his captured victim, but almost to answer his nonquestion the blade erupted into flames. Fire shot out from the eye sockets and mouth and nose from the troll, he fell to the ground dead as the fire-cooked his brain to ash.

Clementine spun to see what had become of her prey but the little girl with red hair was gone, and that trolls alarm had worked, Clementine could already hear the bustle of heavily armed soldiers coming her way. Clicking her tongue she activated the 'invisibility" power her cloak had and ran off into the darkness. The goblin guards would only find a terrified and crying little girl next to the body of her dead protector.

"GINZ! GINZ GET UP! She cried as she shook the smoking corpse back and forth." The goblins rushed to her and tried to shelter her from the loss of her friend.

"You can HEAL! I'VE SEEN YOU HEAL FROM STUFF! WHY WON'T YOU HEAL?!" Nemu cried at the top of her voice, but his powers of regeneration would not work against fire, she knew this, she did not care... maybe she could order him the way her sister orders the goblins to do things they normally can't... at the top of her voice she cried...

'GINZ OOAL GOWN, THE ONE WITH THE STRONG NAME I ORDER YOU TO HEAL YOURSELF...this is an order!" She cried out with tears running down her face and hitting her balled up fists against his arm.

"I am sorry little one... but I don't think, that is in his job description..." Red said appearing above them on the house and shaking his head. Enri came running up and cried when she saw Nemu was okay but cried again when she saw the unmoving body of the troll that saved her sister's life. After some light questioning about what had happened, they left Nemu to Enri and Nfirea's care. For that night and every night for the next two years, Nemu would share Enri's and Nfirea bed... As orders from general Enri Emmot.

"We let our guard down." One of the goblins stated obviously. Enri directed the goblins to double, no triple security on the mage hostage, but when back up arrived they found two sleeping bodies of the guards and the prisoner missing. Yet in another part of the Fortress of Carne, a little bit back in time...

"INTRUDER DISCOVERED BY LADY NEMU'S HOUSE EVERYONE COME HERE NOW!" An about to die, trolls voice could be heard which drew the attention of the three goblin guards, a caster, an assassin, and a warrior, to "cover all their bases" they had all be stationed as elite guards.

"Shit, you hear that?" The assassin said nodding in the direction of the yell. The mage nodded.

"Yeah, that was Ginz... and, intruder?"

"He... He said by, Lady Nemu's house... right?" All three grew very visibly agitated. If it had just been "Intruder discovered, I need help" they would have held fast and trusted their Goblin compatriates to help, but as soon as they heard the name 'Nemu' their inner "older brother" instincts kicked in.

"We should go yeah? If it's Nemu..." The warrior began but looked at the hostage who still hasn't moved a muscle the whole time they had him in his temporary cell.

"Guarding the prisoner is also important... he very well could be waiting for this moment to escape!" The mage said pointing at his motionless body"...but still". He added, even the wisest of the three could not get the image of something happening to Lady Nemu, then having a furious General Enri yelling at them "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?" They all shivered at the thought of getting scolded for letting harm come to Lady Nemu when they were close enough to hear the plea for help.

"He's fine, right? Look at him! From what I was told he was so drained of mana all his hair fell out and he was pale as a zombie!" Even IF he wanted to escape, you think he can CAST anything? Look at him!" The Warrior grew more agitated.

"It's true, I recognize symptoms of overexerted mana resources all too well... he won't be able to cast anything for another week... tops!" The Mage confirmed. that was all they needed to hear.

"Okay, one of us will go and check it out while we wait here to make sure nothing "funny" happens. It was a good plan, nobody would fault them for thinking so. After a quick game of 'you, me or him' (a 'game' goblins play to keep the peace when important decisions need to be made in a hurry. There was "yoU" signaled by making a U ((or V)) with your middle and pointing finger. This would beat "hiM" which was all four fingers laid flat making an "M" symbol, this, in turn, would beat"ME" which was a balled up fist, but with your thumb sticking out to yourself. So to win you had to match the hand symbol that beat one but would not lose to the other.)

The mage gave his friends a nod before running off toward the sound of the alarm. It was as soon as they turned around they saw the other human mage, up on his feet holding a scroll that he had "hidden very well" pointed at them. A purple mist came floating out of the scroll that cast [SLEEP] at the first tier level. Ironically the mage would have resisted this weak spell, but, the two weaker-minded goblins immediately slumped over and began snoozing, Khajiit did not know this, but [SLEEP] was particularly effective on goblins with no magical training. Khajiit smiled but then frowned when he realized he was still in his cell, with no way to un...

"Hello, Khajiit ol' pal!" A familiar voice said. Clementine revealed herself pulling back the hood and smiling as she walked lazily into the cell.

"Ah! perfect, the key, bring it here!" He said pointing at it then becoming very light headed and falling on his face. Clem giggled but did as she was told. And even scooped up the man and made for the doorway and reactivating the remaining time she had on her cloak. Once again, back in time and at a different location of the village.

"INTRUDER DISCOVERED BY LADY NEMU'S HOUSE EVERYONE COME HERE NOW!" Once again, and at that time. A young maid with glowing yellow eyes and long red braids began her descent from the air.

"Oh? I heard there was something going on over at Carne... but I didn't expect a show!" The cute maid thought to herself as she made a B-line for Nemu's house faster than anyone would have been able to guess. As she got closer her keen eyes saw something, a human, carrying an older man, and they both had [INVISIBILITY] cast... she knew this was something she should probably follow up on... but the voice she heard from the troll with the insulting name was "Nemu". And Lupusregina had been ordered personally by His Majesty to keep that one safe, so she had to ignore those two... for now.


	4. The battle for Carne Fortress begins

Lupusregina floated above the commotion, she looked down and saw a safe Nemu crying over the body of that stupid troll.

"Aww how sad!" She smirked to herself. That troll's choice of name almost earned himself a smiting upon first meeting her, but she decided to pay it no heed as she saw he was assigned to Nemu as a guard most times. "I guess he did make my job a little easier thought" still not caring that he was dead.

"OH!" She remembered the fleeing humans, she thought about saying something but decided it was useless and flew off toward the fleeing humans. The same humans that were arguing at this moment. She ran with him in her arms still trying to put more distance between them and the fortress.

"Did you get my items?" He asked. She shook her head "no".

"It was all I could do to rescue you, besides I don't know where your necklace is." She said.

"Not the necklace, that damned thing will kill me if I use it again! I meant the other thing I showed you. If we had that we could win this fight right now!" He grumbled. She began to laugh.

"What? What's so funny about letting my most powerful item slip into enemy hands huh?" Khajiit spat.

"I'm... I'm not the one laughing..." Clementine said on edge looking around.

"You what?" He asked just as Clementine "tripped" on something. She managed to regain her balance and not take a tumble, but at the cost of hurling Khajiit to the ground, he landed with a loud groan. Clementine turned to see a girl in braids standing before her.

"THE MAID!" Clementine couldn't believe it, here was her target, right before her, standing there like nothing was the matter. She immediately activated her bracelet underneath the coat... now she just needed to buy time...the longer the better, if this maid came at her with full force, all was lost...

"Whatcha doing? huh?" The Maid asked with a mocking tone.

"SHE'S TAUNTING ME! I need to drag this out... what would trigger my sadistic side?" She thought fast, she needed this girl to toy with her at all costs!

Clem backed up, getting ready to put on a show of her life, she remembered all the stupid, sad faces her victims had pulled as she tore pain from their bodies... or how they would cry for mercy... "YES! that's it!"

"We are enemies of that fort, I was rescuing my friend here... please, we only want to..." Lupusregina made a loud "buzzer sound for wrong answer" noise.

"Like... I heard you talking the whole time... So what's your real game huh?" She asked cracking her knuckles. Clementine fell to her knees sobbing...

"Shit... shit... I can't believe I'm going to die... not like this." Clem cried, her eyes tearing up. Lupusregina looked confused. Clem burst into tears.

"Please! Please don't hurt me... I can't stand pain... I don't want to feel anything when I die, you'll at least do that right?" Clem looked at her pleading for a fast death.

"Or... let me go! I... I have money! I'll give you money!"

"They always try to bribe me..." Clem thought as she turned on her "waterworks" full blast, she even let snot run down her nose, the more pathetic the better...

"You can stop right there..." The maid said with an amused look on her face.

"I don't know what your planning, but from someone who knows a thing or two about "fake faces"..." Lupusregina said pulling back her arm like she was "winding up" a punch.

"Nah... Gonna knock you out with on punch~su"! Was the last thing Clementine heard before a fist was the last thing she saw before her vision became dark and she fell unconscious.

The maid easily knocked Clem out. Khajiit tried to scramble away but a foot stepped on his hand.

"Well your friend is sleeping, so now YOU have to tell me what's going on?" The maid said, grinding her lovely heel deeping into his hand. Khajiit shrieked in pain as the bones in his hand were ground to dust.

"YYYEEEEEEE?" She did the typical 'cute girl is thinking of something pose'.

"I'm afraid I don't know this 'YYEEEEEEE' you keep talking about, hmmm..." She said bobbing her head back and forth.

"This bitch is exactly like her! damnit of all the luck!" Khajiit cried in his head but then he saw it...Clem's eyes twitching, she was starting to "come around" those health regen trinkets they got were about to pay off! He noted the weird bracelet thing was still powering up as well, least it looked that way. He frantically tried to crawl his way over to her, as he was about to reach Clementine, who was beginning to stir, the maid brought her foot down on the back of his calf shattering it, once again he cried out in pain, and this cry awoke Clementine.

"Ohh come on now, you gotta tell me what you're up to or I might have to start really hurting you!" She clapped as she smashed his other leg to nothingness before the pain caused him to pass out he saw a slight smile creep across the face of his boss, and then blackness.

Lupusregina frowned, that was over far too fast.. maybe the girl could...but then someone jumping onto her back interrupted her train of thought.

"Gotcha...!" Clementine said in a "victorious tone" into Lupusregina's ear as she activated the bracelet...

Lupusregina felt her body fall limp and then her world changed. She was laying on the ground, but looking down at herself, as if she could see from her attacker's point of view, but she had no control past that. She realized that she had lost.

Back in Carne the goblins had figured out which way the mage had escaped by the footprints left and they followed, but before too long they came across a familiar person, Lupusregina was coming toward them, she dragged the, recently healed, body of Khajiit behind her by the scruff of his robes, she greeted them in a familiar way before tossing the mage to them.

"Stupid girl got away, not sure what she did, she used something to escape, but I still got this one...~su" The maid said laughing. They all looked at the man then tied him up. He was escorted to his, now finished, magic cell. Before the questioning began.

Jircniv, Enri, Pe Riyuro, Lupusregina, and a few goblins were on hand for the interrogation.

"So, let's start with an easy one... who are?" Enri asked in a stern tone. At first thought about not answering but he looked at Lupusregina, she nodded and cracked her knuckles. He winced and began to talk.

"My name is Khajiit Dale Badantel... until recently I was an agent of Zurrernorn... we came here with a plan to kill The Emperor and or the General of the goblin army." He said truthfully.

"Why kill me? What did I do to earn the ire of Zurrernorn?" jircniv asked with no anger in his voice.

"I could ask the same thing! We mostly keep to yourself here at Carne." Enri cried in anger.

"You are allied with that...thing! And you didn't hear me, I said I am no longer with Zurrernorn..." he said, also truthful.

"Then who wants me dead?" He asked.

"Not just you, my Lord and we want you ALL dead... everyone who is allied with that wretched monster MUST suffer..." He glared at Enri the hardest, but then fixed his hate back to The Emperor.

"WHAT?! You REFUSE to SPEAK?!" Lupusregina said in a 'bad acting' manner before slapping him across the face, several of his teeth flew out form the blow, he rocked back and forth for a second before realizing what she said.

"Wha... what?" I've told you all I know! I Don't know his name, just that he sold us these magic items and asked us to "kill all the friends of the sorcery kingdom, but don't ever approach the "very strong ones"... it's THE TRUTH!" he pleaded as Lupusregina raised her hand again and he closed his eye expecting another slap.

"Okay, just making sure..." She said with a smile and went back to her corner, he shot her a mean glare then kept talking.

"About that item, we took from you... this man you don't know the name of, he gave it to you?" Enri asked, there was much anger behind her voice.

"Yes... he had me use it once before but nothing really happened, but he said if I use another one 'at the right time' this whole fort would fall in one night!" He sneered. They exchanged glances, they knew he did not lie.

"So where is it huh? This thing you took from him?" Lupusregina asked Enri nodded before ordering a mage goblin to get the box with the item. In it. Before long he returned, gave the box to Enri, who in turn gave it to Lupusregina.

"We figured Lord Ainz would want this, or at least, know what to do with it," Enri said as the maid opened the box to see what was inside.

"Oh... this is..." She started, Enri nodded gravely. It looked like the horn that Ainz Ooal Gown had given her so long ago.

"So...so I've told you everything I know... what now?" Khajiit pleaded. Enri answered him.

"You will remain here until Lord Ainz Ooal Gown has made a verdict of your crime!" The General said.

"Ummm say... can I uh... keep questioning him...alone?" A sadistic smile crept on Lupusregina's face. Enri looked worried but didn't say no, everyone left the room but the maid, they could hear him whimpering as they shut the door.

"So... shall we begin?" She said giggling and turning her gaze to the tied up mage.

"HONESTLY CLEM! You didn't need to hit me that hard... and is it really okay to just tell them all this stuff about him?" Khajiit yelled when he was sure they had left.

"Eh... needed to really sell it, plus this body is CRAZY strong! I only meant to give ya a little slap!" She said shrugging.

"But still, I can't believe they just GAVE you THAT!" he nodded toward the box she had set down.

"Yeah no kidding, talk about a "bad move" she giggled.

"So uh... what, we just use it now? It seems like a good time!" Khajiit spoke up.

"Yeah... but you know... once we use 'it', the jig is up, they will know I'm not who they think... so I wanna, um... have some fun while my cover is intact!" Clementine, who looked like Lupusregina said laughing. He sighed, god only knows what she has planned... he wished for once she would put mission objectives over her own sadistic desires.

"Oh, you should hide that better." He said nodding to the bracelet she has dangling from her wrist.

"Can't, if I remove this thing I'll lose this 'copied body' of mine... and I'll return to how I was..." She explained.

When "Clementine" left she walked out into the open area behind the wall of the inner fortress. She casually walked around trying to get a lay of the land, noting houses in the civilian district but was interrupted by Enri.

"So you are not returning to Nazarick right away?" Enri asked cocking an eyebrow. "Clementine" looked up and down Enri's body, which made her a little bashful.

"You...Wanna go someplace alone? To talk?" "Lupusregina," asked, Enri was surprised to have her question answered with an unrelated question.

"Um... alone?" She was a little suspicious.

"Uh yeah, Ainz said he wanted me to tell you something really secret..." The fake Lupusregina said smiling. Enri frowned and stepped back drawing her rapier and brandishing it at the imposter. The low light of the hallway they shared gleaned off the impression made the blade that Enri held.

"Ainz? Not "Lord" Ainz?" Not once had Lupusregina failed to use a respectful term when talking about her god.

"GOBLINS TO ME!" Enri called out, and within seconds she was flanked by ten shadow warriors and ten more of her elite guard, the twenty goblins looked around for the enemy.

"Where is the enemy Lady Enri?" They asked. Enri pointed at Lupusregina.

"I don't know who that woman is, but she isn't my friend... but she is just as strong I think!" Enri cautioned, they all immediately realized how serious this fight just became.

"Oh? Found out already? Well, that's no fun!" The fake Lupusregina threw out a weak but fast fire spell, Enris goblins rushed to intercept the attack, they grunted in pain but held fast, fire was one of their highest resistances thanks to the enchanted gear they wore. Clementine looked angry but then vanished using [INVISIBILITY]. While the goblins crowded around Enri thinking she was going for a sneak attack she used this time to retreat back to her captured partner.

"So now we start a different kind of fun!" A mocking voice said in the air. Clementine, with the access to Lupu's spells cast [MESSAGE] to Khajiit.

"I'm coming for you, get ready to use it!" She said as she ran to her friend, every goblin she passed has no idea an invisible fake had just passed them but they were still on high alert, so they were all making their way to the prisoner's cells as that was a likely target. She punched a hole through the wall he was in, picked him up and they flew off before any of the guards could react to the violent explosion of her strike.

"I told you we should have just used it right away!" He yelled. She looked annoyed.

"Yeah, whatever just USE it NOW then..." She said back. He pulled out the items and in a low voice reassure himself that this would work...

"I've used it once before, I have controlled and issued commands to undead... and now I face a goblin army of over 5,000..." Fake Lupusregina landed with him outside the gates of the goblin fortress. She frowned. Khajiit brought a strange horn to his lips, it was cracked and looked covered in rot, the straps were barely hanging on at all, but he blew... there was aloud and long trumpet blast, he had asked for a force to bring down the fortress of Carne, and he was answered...

From all around them came a sound of thunder, no the sound of marching, the unison marching of a grand army being led by drums. The goblins all took their defensive positions along their walls, but what they saw, shattered their expectations. There was unit after unit of heavily armored undead, all of it enchanted. They were marching in rows carrying a flag with Khajiit's family crest io it. Their giant black tower shields made it seems like the night itself was upon them. A litch approached Clementine and Khajiit from behind.

"I see, you are the one who called us, I am your litch to command in this 'siege event'!" Neither knew what he meant by 'event' but they listened on to what he wanted to say. Suddenly a large map appeared in front of them, it was a map of the battlefield. The Litch displayed it open and pointed to the center square, which was Carne Fortress.

"Allow me to tell you my plan General Khajiit!" The VERY powerful litch said, even Khajiit felt like an ant in front of this powerful undead that called him master. He took notice of how even Clementine was put off by how powerful this litch seemed to be, it chuckled.

"Ah! You are wondering why I obey you when I am leaps and bounds beyond either of you in power? The answer is simple because I must." He said with a bow. Khajiit looked perplexed, he was never told to expect a litch of this incredible power. It floated with no legs but wrapped around it was a swirling "cloak" made up of black flame and smoke. small ripples of lightning would flash from his arms and hands. His face was pale white but one eye was burning red as a small flame flashed out of it, the other had a vortex of darkness, peeing into it was much like peering into the proverbial, the abyss of magic. As it had no lower jaw and was a floating upper skull with a broken silver and platinum crown dangling off of its top, it's voice was magical. In its right hand, it held fan that looked to be made of lizard or reptile wings, but such a dangerous and evil aura radiated from it Khajiit was scared to even brushing up against the fan.

"But why are you so powerful? I was told my army would a bit weaker than the old Clementine had been, but you are more than anything I ever expected!" Khajiit laughed in sheer glory, with just this one litch, he could conquer the fort and probably any country, not The Sorcery Kingdom or The Slane Theocracy (Again he is wrong about this) The death litch snickered.

"While my army is only around 'level 25 to level 40ish' because amongst the enemy compound there is one that is 'level 90 or above', I was summoned to make this "event" even." He chuckled. Khajiit looked to Clementine with a "who knows what he's talking about with this level thing" kinda look.

"But going back to my plan... you command 50 Death Knights, I have dispatched them in even numbers to help surround the fortress. To back up those death knights we have 50 mounted cavalries on undead mounted griffons that can act as mounted cavalry or fly for air support, I have ordered them to take to the air to see the movements of the enemy goblin army. On top of that there is the magic unit consisting of 20 low level litches and 20 mid-range, as well as a special litch corp that will remain hidden and deny the enemy use of the spells [MESSAGE], [GREATER TELEPORTATION] as well as it's weaker counterparts and [GATE], meaning the enemy fortress cannot call for help or even receive it if they did! He clapped his hands at how wonderful his master plan would be.

"My stealth and assassination unit of undead ninja and assassins have already made their way to the center of the enemy compound undetected, they range in the high 50's and 60's in level thanks to the 'difficulty scaling' of this fortress for this event. When I give the signal to attack they will make a move to kill the enemy general and it's commanders, there are 25 of them ready to kill this "General Enri". Also, we have the poison arrow archer crossbow unit 1000 strong, this will provide cover for our air units and wear down the enemy's anti-siege archers, they will be imbued with anti-fire barriers from their commanders... I can't wait to see the looks on those goblin's eyes when their fire arrows do nothing!" He rubbed his palms together menacingly.

"And finally my [CREATE UNDEAD] siege battalion made up of 50 mid-level litches that specialize in creating wave after wave of many low-level skeletons that do not require mana to make, this will make up the bulk of your army as it is easily destroyed, but just as easily replaced, perfect for wearing down the defences of a stronghold over time so long as we keep the casters protected.

"So when I... I mean when YOU give the command, we will begin by wearing down the outer walls from all four sides with repeated and unlimited casts of [FIREBALL] from the magic unit, after the first holes appear our skeleton masses will pour in and wreak havoc on the defending archer troops, when that happens our cavalry unit will be safe to engage the enemy elite ranged units and caster squads... from there when we route the enemy numbers just down to its powerful main camp of fighters, out powerful death knights will engage them alongside the rest of our troops to deplete the enemy resources and hopefully wear them down... when this "level 90 or above" reveals itself, I will try to help to take it down, so long as it isn't a magic caster... I favor our chances of victory." He turned to look at his two shocked generals.

"W...why was this thing so damn cheap compared to the necklace?" Khajiit wondered aloud, Clementine only shrugged and smiled.

"There are two no... three people you MUST bring to me alive, NO MATTER WHAT!" Clementine ordered the powerful mage.

"This "General Enri and her little sister with the red hair and the braids... and if you can General Enris husband, but as he is a magic cast..." The Litch laughed evil and raised his hand to stop her.

"Do not fear Lady Clementine, my plan was to take the important ones alive for torture all along!" he laughed evilly, he really did like his new generals!

"So... when would you like to give the order to attack and begin all the fun?" the Elder Death Litch named Kagyu hissed. Back inside the fortress, every important member of Carne was meeting inside the strongest foundation in the fortress.

Jircniv and Pe Riyuro had found and met up with Enri by this point, he tried to ask what was happening when Red revealed himself and took a defensive position next to The Emperor, they all fell back indoor, inside the fortified compound, good thing too because a rain of poisonous arrows came flying down all over the fort.

PART EIGHT: Predictable outcome

Jircniv looked around as they shut and barricaded up the doors. His mind was racing but as he looked at his good friend Pe Riyuro he saw a reassuring sight, not a single sight of worry or panic, he was perfectly calm.

"The fools..." Pe Riyuro said chuckling. Baziwood looked at the Qougoa and raised an eyebrow.

"Ho ho ho ho! Then it seems you would have noticed it as well?" A short little goblin said waving himself with a fan he was chuckling and just as relaxed as Pe Riyuro.

"Yes... They probably heard the phrase "undead army" and thought they could easily win." Pe Riyuro said snickering. While Jircniv was by no means a stupid man, he didn't see why they were this relaxed. Given the army of the dead beating down their door.

"Indeed, we cannot lose this... without question, the only tough part may be to do this without a single casualty." The goblin strategist said stroking his beard. Enri spoke up.

"Um... why, are we in such a good position?" While she trusted the strength of her goblins... they were matched army for army... plus that Lupusregina look-alike was a worry... she hoped the real one was okay. The goblin strategist looked at Pe Riyuro as in a, would you like to tell her?" Then Pe Riyuro nodded calmly said.

"First there is this..." He pointed to the open window that Red jumped through.

"I have killed all the members of this "shadow assassin squad". He said as calmly as he had said anything and sat down.

"Second, they messed up when they cut off [MESSAGE]..." Pe Riyuro further explained. Nimble scoffed.

"So how do we call for help then? To him, this seemed like the worst of all their predicaments." The Goblin Strategist chuckled. But not in an insulting way.

"That's right, [MESSAGE] cannot be cast... so what happens if someone from Nazarick or E-Rantel tries to [MESSAGE] the let's say... missing real Lupusregina?" He said shrugging.

"By the way, I'm sure she's okay... but furthermore..." He pointed back to Pe Riyuro. This is the first time either of these two had met, the fact that they knew what was going to happen spoke volumes of their military wit. Baziwood chuckled, seems he trusted the Quogoa mind.

"It shouldn't be long till a patrolling Death Knight comes to the fort to check up, they will be flanked by undead years beyond theirs." He snickered.

"But...but that Lupu look alike... she could easily handle that thing," Enri said frowning. Pe Riyuro and The Goblin Strategist smiled at the same time with a knowing nod.

"Indeed... She will kill it easily... And that will be their final "nail in the coffin". The Goblin said taking a seat and looking disappointed... he really hoped this battle would have allowed him to show how good he was, but his enemy was just so dumb. Enri blinked, he gave her a wink.

"And what happens when that thing falls?" He said waiting for the rest of the room to catch up. Jircniv realized what he was getting at, His Majesty would know the second when and where this fell... He... He might even come personally to see what all the "hubbub" was about.

"So then, we literally just wait to win?" Jircniv scoffed, it always seemed that when on His Majesty's behalf, failure was not possible. The goblin strategist grinned...it would seem only Pe Riyuro was the other one to know what was coming next.

"Don't misunderstand me, this is only why we cannot lose... the reason why we win is they failed to account for something else about their "undead". The goblin said. Enri still didn't know what he was saying but Jircniv knew all too well what it was.

"They are comparing that group of shambling corpses to the undead made by The Sorcerer King... which means..." A wicked smile swept his face and he turned to Jircniv.

"So when does His Majesty wish to ask the one called 'Biscuit' to go win this thing for us?" Pe Riyuro said finding some stashed wine and sniffing it to check it's quality.

He frowned...

"So not everything will be wonderful after..." there was still a problem...

"But there IS one thing that worries me and that I don't like..." Pe Riyuro said in a gloomy voice. They all waited to hear what the dreaded news was, even The Goblin Strategist was stunned to hear there was something he had not accounted for!

"The wine is cheap..." Pe Riyuro said annoyed.

Back outside the walls in a magically constructed planning tent, the enemy commanders gathered.

"When should we give the order to attack?" The litch asked Khajiit

"I have confirmed that each of our undead elites are "higher in level" than that of the goblins, so an all-out attack isn't such a bad idea, but their personal guard is very strong, my assassin squad was wiped out by whatever group they encountered..." Kagyu said displeased, while he knew their chances of success were low, it would have been nice if they had at least taken down one enemy commander...

"So we need to destroy the army before we can attempt to topple the Generals? Khajiit said looking at the impressive wooden fortress that stood before him, oddly enough every single goblin retreated into some kind of fortified structure, were they planning to wait out an army of undead that neither needed rest or food...or even MANA for that matter?

"Beating their personal guard will be easy, I hope... However, our scouts have told us of an oncoming problem..." The litch said clicking his nonexistent tongue.

"A patrolling Death Knight will be here soon... and I don't favor my rear guard's chances against that thing. SO my plan was to just throw wave after wave of [CREATE SKELETON MASS] to keep it busy, we will never kill it. But I bet it's orders are somewhere along the lines of "destroy anyone who attacks you, or defend yourself" I doubt it will have the presence of mind to ignore attacks to make a B-line for us..." The litch said nodding. Upon hearing this Clementine perked up.

"No... let me handle this, been wanting to try out this new body for a while now... and I owe that thing if it's the one I think it is..." She said growling and cracking her knuckles. The litch shrugged.

"If you think you can handle it... still I'd like to try and bring it under my control first, just to see if I can." He snickered, how great would that be to turn a member of The Sorcery Kingdom into his personal guard!

"Nope... gonna kill this thing ~su!" She said walking away rotating her arm.

"Fine, just be back in time to help with their heavy guard unit, that is gonna be a tough fight without you!" Kagyu reminded his boss. But high above this siege event flies a fat frost dragon being ridden by a cute Dark Elf girl.

"Mistress Aura? What are those things?" Hejinmal asked the little elf girl on his back pointing to large black swarms of undead surrounding Carne Fortress. Aura raised her eyebrow... she knew right away these we not undead made by here Lord... But they were from Yggdrasil...

"Not sure, but I'm sure they are the enemy... Hey is that Lupusregina fighting a Death Knight?" Aura said, pointing out a scuffle behind the undead army.

"What the heck.. Is going on, also my [MESSAGE] is blocked..." Aura exclaimed annoyed.

"What do you want me to do Mistress Aura?" The chubby Frost Dragon asked. Aura thought for a moment as she looked down at the army. It seemed one of His Majesty's Soul Easters was having fun down there, gobbling up all the undead souls. OH! it was the one that was giving The Emperor Jircniv a lift.

"Okay, I've decided it's okay to destroy those undead, so this will be good training for you, I'll sit by and grade your fighting skills ok? Just stay away from the Soul Eater, I don't wanna ruin his fun, he looks very happy." She said giving the dragon a commanding pat to go down and drop her off somewhere she could see the test.

The magical litch unit fired spell after spell at the wall, in a few more minutes the first wall would fall... but just then, a large shadow was cast over them as a huge Frost Dragon landed in front of them blocking their barrage to the fort.

"AND JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? HA! GUESS IT'S UP TO ME TO SAVE THIS FORT!" The Dragon Said, pretending he was one of those "main characters" his Mistress would talk about when reading things called "manga".

The mages were shocked and all froze looking at one another, since when did the enemy have a dragon? Hejinmal smirked as he sucked in all the air his dragon lungs would allow, held it for a second then unleashed a blast of ice and frost that could rival the most terrible of snowstorms, the torrent of ice shards and freezing can turn anything into a frozen statue, indeed Dragon Breath, is as terrible as the rumors say.

However.

"We undead are immune to cold attacks..." One of them said completely bored out of his mind, they shrugged and all pointed at the dragon and in unison cast [FIREBALL]. There were several explosions that consumed The Dragon, he was hit with fire from all sides, even his tail (which was SUPER sore) was hit.

"OWOWOWOW OW! OUCH OW!" The Dragon cried as he leaped into the air and flew away with smoke streaming of his back and tail and tears running down his face.

"MISTRESS AURAAAAAA... I WAS BEATEN IMMEDIATELY!" He sobbed crying and flying back to his "mother". Aura could not do more than shake her head... she loved Hejinmal but why was he SO WEAK? She decided to take it easy on the big guy, this was his first real fight after.

"It's okay Hejinmal just hold on." She inhaled and breathed out a sweet-smelling vapor and patting his tail. the vapor brought relief to his soul and mind, his wounds, while not healing did not hurt anymore. He crouched down crying, she patted his nose and pointed at the fight.

"It's okay... but just so you know, you're doing 5000 tail whips tomorrow when you're feeling better!" She said rubbing his neck. Hejinmal just whined.

"Anyway, now that you're feeling better, fly me over to Lupusregina, I wanna know why she's fighting that Death Knight, and what's with all these strange undead." Hejinmal nodded and got in a position so his mistress could climb on. He spread his singed wings and set off to where he was commanded. As he looked down he saw a Soul Eater running through the enemy, when he would pass the weaker undead only ashes were left.

The Soul Eater ran at a leisurely pace, his [DEATH AURA] was not working on the undead but once he switched to his [CONSUME AURA] things changed, the essence of the weaker undead were sucked into him, as every undead he devoured up added to his strength, he would store up this power deep with him adding to his already boosted stats. The undead enemy either tried to fall back or engage, but as soon as they were within twenty-five yards of Biscuit they would take lethal AOE damage (killed by the first or second "tick" of damage) and be converted to a pile of ash and whatever stats or mana they had would be transfer into Biscuit which would fuel and empower his "run of death" through the enemy army.

"CURSE YOU!" A strong undead wrapped in smoke black smoke and fire screamed and cast strong magic in Biscuits direction Biscuit as he tore through the enemy ranks with ease. He decided he'd need to do a few more laps and absorb some more souls before he could tackle something of like that. But on the far side of this battle, another one rages by against a Death Knight and a battle maid.

Clementine threw her hardest punch, once again the Death Knight blocked it with its giant shield. But a large fist mark appeared next to her others, She was wearing down its defense, which was good, she did not want to use her new arsenal of spells on such a weakling.

"Come... on...now... BREAK!" She yelled as the last flurry of punches caused the shield to explode as it was destroyed, the Death Knight was knocked off guard and stumbled back, it was completely open, she jumped up with newfound speed and agility and brought down an earth-shattering 'ax kick' the impact landed on its face, a "critical strike". The cracks that formed from it's wound ran down its body, spread past its chest and even to the legs and arms, there was a louder creaking sound as it's body became undone. Clementine jumped back to watch her handiwork unfold, but instead of crumbling into dust, at the last second before death it's wounds repaired to the point of being nonfatal.

"What? I was sure that hit would kill you." She spat. But it looked as if it was hanging on by just a thread, so one more attack should do it, she reared back her fist for the finishing blow and threw her fist at its face with everything she had, but her hand would not move, something was stopping her from attacking...

"Like, I thought maybe you were just practicing with him, but you were actually going to kill that Death Knight huh?" A small elf child boy... no, a girl, was holding her elbow with a puzzled expression. Clementine looked at her in amazement.

"Ya know he was created personally by Lord Ainz right? I think Lady Albedo said this means he outranks you... so you can't just kill this thing Lupu!" The child continued.

"Wh... Let me GO!" A very annoyed Clementine screamed, she tried to yank her arm away, but it would not budge.

"You're actin' weird Lupu, you alright? Aura said looking at her then immediately at the bracelet on her wrist, she blinked a couple of times then her eyes grew wide.

"HEY! Is that... is that a 'world item'?" Where the HECK did you get THAT?" The child asked in disbelief. But she was answered by a burning fist to her face, this was the strongest offensive spell in this witches move set, a holy fire strike backed by flames that would burn her so bad she would not be able to heal, Aura caught the strike last second with her other hand but the magic still activated and there was a huge explosion of holy fire. Clementine hoped this attack did not kill the child outright... she's been denied her fun WAY too much as of late, so...

"Um... you know I'm immune to fire attacks, right? And what's this? A karma based attack, you IDIOT, I'm a good person!" The little girl rebuked the taller maid twisting her arm and causing "Lupusregina" to cry out and fall over.

"Hmmm... So you're NOT the real Lupu, or you're being controlled by that thing!" She remarked shaking her finger at Clementine's bracelet.

"Th...THAT'S RIGHT! I'm NOT the real, uh "Lupu" I have taken over her body! So if you kill me... or try to remove that item, she, your friend will DIE!" Clementine bluffed. But the girl didn't show a single shred of caring.

"Mmm I don't think so... or rather, so what? We all got together and agreed that 'death was better than being used as a hostage'... so if killing you will also kill Lupu... it's a shame, but, it's not that big a deal anyway, not really." She said rolling her eyes a bit. Clementine didn't know what she was saying but she knew her bluff had failed, and she knew this kid was beyond even her newfound powers, she began to panic as a VERY familiar feeling began to take over, mentally, her back began to hurt.

"Anyways, thanks for THIS!" The child said as she plucked the bracelet off of Clem's wrist so fast Clementine didn't have time to react. The power was broken and 'ownership' was passed to Aura. Instantly Clementine's true body was restored and Aura now held prisoner a terrified blonde woman. The young elf looked a bit surprised.

"AH! So you really aren't Lupu huh? Good, I didn't want to feel bad for killing a friend, however temporarily it would be." She said nodding her head and tightening her grasp on Clementine. She wove to the Death Knight.

"I have this now, thanks for your help, big guy!" The Death Knight gave no bow but just walked back to its predetermined path back to E-Rantel. Aura thought for a second then a huge smile swept across her face and she blushed as she thought of the head pats she was sure to receive from His Majesty when she personally delivered a world item! And maybe he'll be happy to see this girl too!

"Welp let's go, you got a 'date' with Ainz Ooal Gown!" She said as she cast [MESSAGE]... it failed.

"Oh right..." She clicked her tongue. Those stupid casters.

"Hey, Quadracile! Feel like beatin' up some stupid casters for me?" She yelled out. The unseen lizard smiled (if it could) then scurried off, soon enough her message went through to her little brother.

"Hey, Mare! I have something to deliver to Lord Ainz, "[GATE] me" would ya?" She mentally spoke, there was a surprised reaction but then a mental nod and a black portal appeared and Aura hoped in pulling a screaming and pleading Clementine.

"STOP BITING MY HAND, your spit is gross!" She said giving Clem a good shake and hitting her hard enough to knock her out a second time.

Around this time Biscuit was making his second pass through the enemy ranks, he'd already devoured half the enemy army but only 2,568 souls simply would not be enough, he happily went about his easy job...

Back inside the magical planning tent of the enemy, Khajiit was panicking, "what had happened?" he wondered. Within ten minutes every front he'd been fighting failed, even after a great report of beating a frost dragon was brought back to his camp.

"My lord we have to [GATE] you away, I will defend this position until you can escape!" Kagyu screamed in panic when he saw the, now fully powered, Soul Eater barreling down on them.

"Send me to the store!" The death litch nodded and did so, Khajiit stepped through the doorway, escaping just as the elder litch was turned to dust by a passing Soul Eater named "Biscuit" before he could get off another spell.

Some time had passed when Pe Riyuro clapped his hands once loudly when the ruckus had died down outside.

"Okay 'gents'... let's go see what "the damage is," The Quogoa said briskly as he finished off the wine. Jircniv smiled and followed the group outside, the cheers and laughs of the goblins that were first to exit to give the "all clear" could be heard as she saw the rest of the undead scrambling into the forest and as a Soul Eater chased them.

"You there! Any casualties or injuries to report about?" The Goblin strategist asked. The soldier ran up to his commander giving them a quick salute before issuing a report.

"SIR! One goblin archer was scratched by a poison arrow, he resisted the effects as it was a very weak poison, to begin with, also one other goblin hit his foot on the way into the shelter, he says it "Hurts but will be better in and hour or so" AH! that hour has passed so I'm sure he is now fit for duty, other than that, nothing else to report other than the cleanup and repair of the Fortress Has already begun!" The underlying said with a matter of fact tone. They looked to Their general Enri, she smiled at the thought of not losing anyone and gave him a nod, they couldn't tell because his fan was covering his face, but the face of this usually green goblin was beet red.

Baziwood nudged Nimble with his elbow and nodded toward Pe Riyuro who was now holding the empty vase of wine upside down trying to let the lets few drops of the "cheap wine" fall into his mouth. Around this time an unconscious werewolf maid began to stir, she couldn't see anything but with a stretch she broke her restraints and removed her eye blindfold... she really hoped she wasn't going to get yelled at again...

The feeling was mostly pleasant around the base, repair on the damaged wall began in earnest and the clean up was going well, all was fine until...

"Um, General Enri? We uh, need you to tell us what to do about uh...Ginz..." One of the Goblins said in a lowered voice as to not upset Nemu who was clutching Enri's arm. She gave him a look of "in one second". She gave it some thought but a voice spoke up to a body that was not previously there.

"I have an idea about that... he uh, died protecting Nemu, yes?" Lupusregina said scratching the back of her head. They all nodded silently except for Nemu who burst out back into tears. Lupusregina rolled her eyes and barked out.

"That means he died doing my jo... I mean, he died fulfilling Lord Ainz Ooal Gowns' wishes... which there is no greater act I can think of... so... after I get the "OK" from my Lord Ainz, His Majesty... I'll see what I can do about getting that big dude resurrected... but my price will be he has to change his name!" She said in all seriousness. Nobody said a word as she walked out of the room. Jircniv once again shook his head.

"She talks as if, revival is, not too much a thing..." He said out loud, mostly to himself, but it was answered with a sigh.

"Such is the power of The Sorcerer Kingdom... Which we serve." Pe Riyuro said mostly to himself.

"Oh! that's right, the... The dwarf! I still haven't received a single lead about him!" Jircniv said slapping his face with his palm, The last two days have been so fraught with excitement, he had almost forgotten about this serious task, he alone was told to perform.

"Yeah, we haven't heard from 'Aura' yet have we?" Pe Riyuro asked scratching his chin.

"That can only mean one thing if that wolf never found him, he didn't go into the forest like Nimble's man had reported.

"But... that was our only lead! That means... we actually LOST ground trying to retrieve this item!" Jircniv yelled out in disgust as he collapsed onto a wooden chair that had been provided for him. Both his knights frowned till a nice voice brought everyone to look at the girl clad on adamantine chain mail.

"But still... It was good that you came here right? I mean, your Soul Eater did most of the work in defending us!" Enri chirped in, they nodded but Jircniv frowned.

"I fear it may have been us that brought them to your doorstep in the first place."

"I'm not so sure about that, that necromancer said he wants all of the allies to suffer... and he was in E-Rantel... which means he may have originally been here to destroy this fort!" Pe Riyuro added.

"And if he had used "that spell" on the center of this fort instead of "wasting" it on Your Majesty's carriage... the battle would have gone a different way indeed... So it is most fortunate that you arrived here when you did!" The Goblin strategist reminded everyone.

"HA! It's almost as if His Majesty The Sorcerer King suspected this plot all along and took measures to topple it, using minimal resources no less!" Baziwood exclaimed becoming a fan of this "undead creature". Nimble just frowned inwardly, not wanting ruin the mood.

"It would seem that "knowing everything" is within His Majesty's Ainz Ooal Gowns job description...as expected!" Red said nodding further still. Jircniv just pondered this.

"Is that true? Did he really see so far...yes, OBVIOUSLY it is true, the mind and cunning of this monster are his most powerful of weapons, and his weakest weapons already far surpass any of us... to think I once ATTEMPTED to rebel against this... this, God? And instead, he does not smite me, like a fly buzzing around a dragon... no, he allows me to serve him." While still not in love with The Sorcerer King, Jircniv was washed with a refilled fear and awe of His majesties intellect and foresight and vowed to remain ever loyal to The Sorcerer Kingdom as a vassal state.

"Right so by that logic... No matter our next course of action... no matter where or what I decide to do... it could ONLY be part of His Majesty's The Sorcerer Kings plan then... I wonder how many years Lord Ainz Ooal Gown has foreseen into the future?" Jircniv asked as a rhetorical question, surprisingly Red offered an answer from his unseen position by Jircnivs side.

"While I would never presume to know such things... I... I have heard rumors..." Red said in a very hushed and revered voice.

"Oh? And how long do these "rumors" say the Sorcerer King can see and plan into the future?" Pe Riyuro asked with not too much of a jokingly tone, as he was a little drunk. There was a long pause before Red said in hushed voice...

"10,000 years..."

Everyone's jaw dropped open and eyes went wide... nobody doubted this figure even in the slightest.


	5. INTERMISSION

A lone figure stands menacingly over a 'game board' in the shadows of a room with no light and that is very dark. On this board, there are a number of pieces to play with, some knights, some kings, and queens even adventures and...Gods! But all of them his pawns, all but...one His Eyes narrowed onto one piece in the very center, one that looked like a skeleton with giant red orbed shoulder pads holding a sinister golden staff.

"Lord Ainz Ooal Gown... the one who sits at the top of this world..." He said calmly. Since coming to this world there was only one goal his mind yelled at him time and time again.

"Become King! Become the BEST! RULE THE VERY WORLD!" Night after night the voices urged him on, but compared to HIM... he wasn't strong enough... he had to "bide his time" and "move in the shadows" and "strike when the time is right". But...

"Soon...YES! Soon all his 'pieces' would be "in order". The Man looked over the board once more, he had some pawns scattered about... but they all had one purpose... get to the center of the board, and...

"DETHRONE THE KING OFF OF THIS VERY WORLD!" He screamed at the top of his voice as he brought down "his" piece HARD next to the "Ainz piece" in order to create enough force to dramatically make the Ainz piece fall over...defeated!

However...

As he brought down "his" piece he accidentally hit the "Ainz piece" at which point the oddly directed force caused the 'Ainz piece' to spring up at an odd angle and fly directly into the eye of the man who had just sought to topple that very object that now stuck, painfully in his eye. The man screamed out in agony, throwing the "Ainz piece" down and yelling curses and obscenities to the dark shadow filled the lightless, very dark room. To all this commotion a door slowly opened and a curious little girl head popped out from the open crack in the doorway. She had orange hair one green eye and green eye patch and was wearing a maids uniform.

"Eclair..." Her eye narrowed.

"Found you..." She said in a monotone voice.

"...Lord Ainz has summoned me. I do not wish to be late..." Shizu explained in an emotionless voice

"SHIT!" He screamed in his head! He'd messed up, in all his "planning" to one day rule Nazarick Eclair Eclair Eclair, a short stubby little birdman with long yellow eyebrows backed into the corner of the room. His fate... forever sealed.

But there was the fate of another that still was yet to be decided. And in the sprawling throne room of Nazarick, the Combat maids, as well as the Floor guardians all, stood in attendance in front of Ainz, with Albedo behind him. In the center of the room lay a bound and gagged Clementine with tears of frustration, anger and fear running down her face.

"Well, I have to admit... I never thought I'd get to see you again." Ainz said looking down at the bound and gagged Clementine. The hateful glare in her eyes only made the ones around her laugh, Narberal in particular.

"And on top of our past that we have together, I heard you attempted to harm someone I pledged on my name to protect? Tsk tsk tsk." He mocked her. Her eyes darted around terrified of the monsters standing around her.

"BUT! First things first, let us see who... is pulling your strings..." Ainz leaned down and placed his hand over her head, she flinched away and tried to scream as Ainz began shuffling through her memories, he seemed very displeased at some of the images until his eye sockets flared up with excitement!

"It can't be... but... so, there is another..." Ainz said chuckling. Everyone looked at him, they hoped he didn't mean what they thought when he said "another"...

"And to think... HERE after all this time... this will be..." The Overlord said as he thought of what to do with this new information.

"Okay, I have discovered something of great interest and possible benefit to Nazarick... I will tell you all more when I learn more about it! " Ainz said teasingly, but his demeanor was not that of worry, but excitement, which made everyone feel better. Nobody saw it but he clenched his fists underneath his robe in an "ALRIGHT!" moment. then he was calm again, just as fast as he had gotten excited.

"But as I now know all I need to know... I'm afraid your usefulness to me is over Clementine... as I have already "punished" you from your past transgressions against me, and for thanks for teaching me so much during out "fight."...and for letting me use your old weapons, I would like to offer you a swift and merciful death, but I'm not so sure I like how you targeted little Nemu... so I'm going to turn your final fate to my beloved family here!" He swung out his arms to the blushing cast of monsters and beauties behind him.

"Everyone here will get a suggestion on what will become of you, I will pick the one that pleases me the most, and..." Ainz snapped his fingers to show that his decision will be final.

"So the question begs... "what to do with dear old Clementine?" Ainz said still in an overly mocking tone. He turned to his followers.

"Suggestions?" As soon as he asked everyone's eyes lit up. Ainz chuckled.

"Okay, we'll start with the maids..." He pointed to Yuri Alpha to kick things off.

"I would say we just kill her and be done with it, she's already wasted enough of our time... but that isn't the answer you want, so I say we simply just work her to death, let her atone a little for her sins before death is granted through exhaustion " Yuri Alpha said, adjusting her glasses. Ainz nodded at the fine suggesting...while he knew what the answer would be, he motioned to Solution to say what only she, could and would, say...

"I say you let me absorb her, I promise she will have the most interesting time inside my body!" Solution Epsilon said with a seductive smile that made Clem's blood run cold. Ainz nodded, it would be a fitting end for her, then there was Narrebelle, Ainz also could guess what she would say, he motioned for her to talk.

"Allow me to crush her with my boot like the roach she is." Was all Narberal Gammas suggested.

Lupusregina was about to speak when Ainz raised his hand to stop her.

"Even though no real harm came to Nemu, you technically failed your job, and was outsmarted by her in a fight, so as punishment Lupusregina, you will not get a suggestion." She put on a slightly pouty face but it was a 'cute one' she wasn't really sore, so long as that woman suffered, she would be happy enough.

"Whatever happens to her, let me eat her after!" Entoma cried out in a chipper voice raising her appendages in the air.

Shizu Delta glared angrily at the bound woman on the floor.

"She tried to hurt Nemu?" Shizu thought for a second, she frowned and gave a "thumbs down" pose her death grip on Eclair got a little too tight. Ainz scratched his face and interrupted that as just 'kill her'.

"Hmm, yes, good ideas, Okay now the floor guardians." What would you have become of our guest? Ainz motioned for Sebas to speak first. But Sebas rose his hand in an "I'll pass." motion, so Ainz went to Cocytus which was next to him.

"I. SAY. LET. THE. LIZARD. . . .IF SHE WINS... SO BE IT." Cocytus bellowed out as steam shot off of him. Ainz motioned next in line which was Aura and beside her was Mare.

"Well, I caught her so I think... No, umm I guess I'd just like to give her as a snack to one of my pets, hate to let that meat go to waste, you know!" Aura said shaking her head. As Mare was next he began...

"I th..."

Mare was about to speak up but Albedo cut him off abruptly.

"This wretched dog dared attack my beloved Lord Ainz... Please allow me to crush her spine every night personally. Oh! But I'll need someone to heal her after I crush it so we can do this whenever I'm bored, yes I'd like her as my own personal 'crushing toy'!" Albedo said gleaming with joy, apparently, she assumed that she was already the 'winner'. She snapped her fingers at Lupusregina.

"Lupusringa, can you hea..." But she was cut off by a stern Ainz Ooal Gown.

"ALBEDO! Not only has your idea not been approved yet, but you also cut off Mare here!" Ainz motioned to the young boy who was shaking his head that he didn't mind. Albedo became submissive and bowed deeply, but shot Mare a look ever so slight.

"Well... um... maybe we could have her "baptized" so that she will learn to be a good person and help us?" Mare said looking at her helpless form. Ainz nodded in agreement, he must have liked that one the most so far. Next was Shalltear. Who looked at her with eyes like a hungry wolf looks at an unaware rabbit.

"I Heard she likes to hurt little girls... So I would like to make her into my own personal plaything... I bet we could have a lot of fun together!" Shalltear shrieked, she was already getting aroused of the thought of "breaking in" a new toy with such a fierce will and temper, she purred underneath her breath. Ainz then looked over to Pandora's Actor whom when he realized it was his turn, did a very german salute, clicked his heels and burst out.

"We should punish her in the worst way I have ever seen another punished!..." He said turning and adjusting his hat (it was fine) and pausing for dramatic flair. He looked at Clementine, then at Ainz, then at Clementine again, then at Shalltear.

"YOU SHOULD ALLOW ME TO USE HER AS MY PERSONAL CHAIR!" The soldier dressed shapeshifter cried out as he threw both his hands into the air. Shalltear's eyes twitched as she bared her teeth a little in a frown. Finally, it was Demiurges turn, everyone was ready for the most horrible of suggestions but he just smiled and bowed.

"I believe whatever Lord Ainz decides will be best, I have no real suggestion other than to use her at my farm!" Demiurge said with a wicked grin. Ainz looked surprised.

"OH! I see, yes, will her skin be as good as the 'Abelion sheep' you are currently using I wonder? Ainz asked honestly. Demiurge gave a smirk and adjusted his glasses, he did so enjoy this little "inside joke" him and his master had where Lord Ainz would 'pretend to not know' that the "sheep" were humans.

"I believe her skin will perform to the same quality we've come to expect," Demiurge said giving another bow, at which all others in the room mimicked to Ainz.

"Hmmm yes all very good suggestions, but I think I will go with..." But Ainz was interrupted with a loud and meaningful throat clear, he stopped puzzled, he was sure he had heard from everyone..."

"I would...like...her as... an...under...as an underling, as my own maid!" A struggling voice gasped out from the Penguin. Ainz stopped and looked shocked to see Eclair in the arms of Shizu.

"Oh, Eclair... I didn't really see you there... but I said 'everyone here' didn't?... very well I will take it under consideration with all the others." There was a small glean in the dying penguin's eye. Ainz then walked back to the throne and did his "classic" 'Overlord sits on the throne and looks cool move.' He gaged his sit by everyone's reaction, they were all admiring him beautifully.

"Nailed it..." he thought.

"Okay, onto the next order of business. One of you I need to reward!..." Ainz said with a clap, all their eyes and hearts perked up.

"but..." They all look startled.

"Aura...Mare.. approach." Ainz said in a cheerless tone. The two dark elf twins looked at one another and then approached their Lord.

"Aura, you did a great job by bringing her here! I have learned something fantastic, and on top of that you brought me a "World Item"... I am pleased beyond words, and will award you with anything you desire." Ainz said nodding. A Terrified squeak came from the shivering form of Mare as he realized he was not going to receive an award..." then why?". He trembled in silence gripping his staff ever so tight as tears welled up in his eyes. Aura paid her little brother no mind and thought for a second, then with a grin she told her Lord what she wanted.

"I wish Lord Ainz give me 100 head pats!" She said with the biggest grin she had ever given. Ainz looked at her for a second then nodded, she smiled and turned her back to her master her eyes locked onto Shalltears eyes and she gave a little smug smile until that smile was replaced by one of pure joy as the head pats began...

PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT.

Aura's face was bright red and there could be heard the sound of grinding from behind Ainzes shoulder from Albedo's direction. Also, Shalltear Seemed to be feeling sick as she looked as if she would vomit. Ainz ended the final 'pat' by tossing her hair in a playful manner before chucking as how cute she was with her arms crossed in front of her. After she returned to her place in line she peaked over at Shalltear who was still glaring daggers at her, to which Aura gave her a little "V for victory" sign and another Smug smirk.

"Score... Aura TWO, Shalltear idiot... zero... and Albedo... zero." Aura thought to herself as she gave Albedo a respectful bow and wiped the smile from her face. Raising Albedo's ire did not bring joy to Aura as it did with Shalltear.

"Mare..." As Ainz turned his attention to Mare the young boys eyes and face perked up in a terrified manner, there was a small hole in the carpet where Mare had been grinding his staff into the ground from nervousness and fear.

"What did I do wrong?" The terrified trap asked himself.

PART NINE: The Next step

Somewhere in a remote area somewhere in the territories of the Slane Theocracy...

A black portal spits out a Very scared Necromancer covered in a black hood and coat. In front of a very old, but well-made building, it was dark so finding the entrance might be tricky...

Khajiit didn't believe what had just happened, such overwhelming power! Opposing The Sorcerer King was far more dangerous than he could have imagined. He... he would know! His eyes squinted in the low light to make out the door to, AH! Khajiit wandered up to a large door, above the door read some strange word or name, he had no idea what it could mean...

"LOLGITGUDSCRUBS" When Khajiit had asked about it, the man had said it was the name of a "GUILD". But he said it was "filled with trolls so nobody really took it seriously". He shook his head, however trolls managed to start any kind of a guild... much less one with this kind of...power... was beyond him. When Khajiit entered the door a blue glow lit up, the "guild hall" remained very dormant until someone would enter, there were dust and overgrowth everywhere, nobody had cleaned this place in a very long while.

"HELLO! And welcome to our guild hall!" A male voice rang out and there was a man dressed in a white and black suit standing behind a counter.

"I'm sorry... but you're...our plan has failed..." The man who had a pencil thin mustache and hair was black was slicked back issued a small frown.

"Ah, well I'm very sorry to hear that my inventory was unsatisfactory! is there any more "items of power" that you may need? He asked with a smile."

"Ah... well, all my resources and powers are gone, as well as most of my money... so I..." Khajiit began, the man now frowned very harshly.

"I'm sorry, but you must have money to do business here at LOLGITGUDSCRUBS!" the eccentric man said opening his hands to showcase the "great" hall. There Were empty stations for all kinds of wares, building materials, places to fix your gear even a place that would use something called a "data crystal"... and even a place to buy said "data crystals" and they were all run by a different entity of extreme knowledge or power, but they all acted so damn strange.. but this man had the best "shop" the one with items they could afford, things called "gacha items". Some of the weapon and armor they had, the prices were insane! But these...

"Yes yes I know I... I know of someone with LOTS of money... and... and they will know how to use you're "powerful inventory!" Khajiit pleaded, the smile returned to the man's face.

"Well, then I suggest you bring me this valued customer! We here at the 'once great guild of LOLGITGUDSCRUBS' now only wish to sell off our vast inventory to new and weaker 'players' so they can "have a chance out there"... but still, make money to keep us open and running!" Khajiit bowed respectfully to his new master, although this man acted like a mere "merchant" he knew that before that smile lay a monster of such power... but he certainly acted weird, and why did a being of such power not charge that much for such POWER... why does he even care about money? and he just "gave" that bracelet away to Clementine she had said, for being the "1000th player to shop here". their new master was a strange one for sure.

"But remember! We will not serve any 'players' above level 45! No matter how much money they have! And Only if they are not affiliated with a guild of any kind!" The NPC said spouting his store's policy.

There was that term again..."players" This man called him and Clementine his 'players' when first meeting him, it was odd but they didn't mind.

"Just remember! to..."BRING SUFFERING TO ALL YOU HATE AND IF YOU CAN'T THEN DESTROY THEIR ALLIES!" The NPC that ran this, once Yggdrasil guild hall, turned automatically run store for lower leveled players, said as he was programmed to say upon any 'players' leaving the "store". Khajiit waited for his follow up order which he would always issue.

"But stay away from those 'level 100's'! Even with this gear, they will be too much for you!" The NPC said smiling with a wave. Khajiit stood up to the device that would cast [GATE] 'as a service' for 'low-level players only'.

"Take me to the Holy Kingdom, the capital!" He commanded, the device listened and came to life as a giant black hole appeared.

He would still find a way to win!

And so the guild hall powered down and the NPC in black and white cloths, pencil-thin mustache and slicked back hair vanished until another 'valued customer' would come through his doors looking to buy from this guilds massive stock of useless gacha prize items and occasional real items of power.

A day later Jircniv and crew loaded up their new carriage wagon provided to them by General Enri. It was only to get them back to E-Rantel, where they would purchase a carriage 'more suited for his majesty'. Riding there they passed a nice family with an adorable girl who was hoping to "see her good friend". But other than that the first day of travel was slow and lazy, it wasn't until after they made camp and were sitting around did any real talking begin.

"So Pe Riyuro, what will you do when we return to E-Rantel?" Jircniv asked. The Quagoa thought for a bit.

"Well, as much as I'd love to travel with you some more, I really do need to find some ore for my children." Pe Riyuro said regretfully. While Jircniv held no particular love for his offspring, he understood the want to see them grow up strong and capable.

"And you, what will your next step be?" A pop from the fire made Nimble jump slightly, he had been very quiet as of late, Jircniv would have to get someone on... some two on one time with him...

"I guess we just retrace our steps and go look for more leads..."

"About that My Lord..." Nimble finally spoke up, everyone turned to look at him.

"...I've been thinking about some things that don't add up..." He continued pondering something.

"My man... that "Lent Loudson"... how did he even afford an adamantite dagger in the first place?" Nimble asked to himself.

"I assumed it was a family heirloom or good luck charm passed down from his family or the like..." jircniv answered honestly as it was a bit odd to see a soldier wielding such a great weapon. But Nimble shook his head.

"I recognized the makers mark on that dagger, he's only been operating for the past seven or so years... the dagger has to be new," Nimble said scowling.

"So then what...?" Baziwood asked looking serious.

"If this man this, "Lent Loudson" is crooked enough to try and "make money on the side" to pay for such a nice dagger... what if he feigned injury after slaying the dwarf and taking the 'object'?" He shot a look at Jircniv. Indeed a metal ingot never before seen... that would fetch a very nice price to the right buyer...

"But why send you information about an item he's stolen?" Baziwood asked. Nimbles eyes squinted harder.

"Possibly to cover his tracks, for when this thing pops up on the "black market"... or something of the like, it's also possible a soldier who isn't corrupt somehow knew about this dwarf, so he followed protocol to avoid suspicion." Nimble added. He'd dealt with corruption in the past... as did Jircniv.

"Well there it is then when we get back to the empire, I'll settle up all my affairs that I'm sure to have been piling up..." He said with a groan as he pictured a mountain of well-written scrolls next to a man wagging his "tail".

"While you two try to track down this... Loudson. To find out what really is going on..."

"If my suspicions are correct, he will be long gone by the time we arrive back in The Empire..." Nimble said clicking his tongue.

"Then we will launch a manhunt for him... oh but as discreetly as possible, we still don't want people to know about the item he may have..." Jircniv said reminding his royal guard, he sighed for what he was about to say next.

"Also, I... I want to officially induct Red here, as the final member of "The Four". Jircniv held up his hand to any objections that would spring up from such a statement.

"Not publicly of course... but as of now, we are considering that position "filled" and will no longer be looking for or accepting requests.

"Okay... and what do we do when people ask about this sudden... 'lack of caring for filling that slot'?" Baziwood asked.

"Make up some dribble about how Nazami can never be replaced or how we know he is still one of the four from beyond the grave or something like, I care not!" jircniv said rolling his hand around in disinterest. So with that, Red officially became the unofficial fourth member of the elite personal guard "The Four."

"So how about it Red? you wanna be one of "The Four"?" Baziwood asked to the air. there was no response for a while then his voice said softly.

"I suppose." They all nodded with a "well that's that then" look and kicked out the fire before going to bed, Jircniv fell asleep underneath the stars for the first time since taking the throne. But when they returned to E-Rantel there was a carriage like the one they had lost earlier and a young elf stood there in a cute dress holding a staff and a brown cloak wrapped around his neck and head that draped over his small boyish shoulders. It was Mare...


	6. Ambush

Mare watched as the tattered cart came up with the man he had rebuked not long ago, he felt shame. Ainz had become upset when he heard how he had acted towards The Emperor in the newly added "gallery room".

"We decided on no nameplates for the pictures Mare, how was he to know? You also should not have touched him, he was my honored guest, and I hear you made a bad impression of Nazarick in front of him... I am upset with you Mare..." His Lord words shattered Mare every time he remembered them, of course, he was right, and Mare had been a bad boy, it's just that...

"Mare, go welcome our guests, bring Jircniv and Pe Riyuro here please." His Lords' voice said from the carriage that Mare was station in front of. He clutched his staff and ran to meet The Emperor.

"Um...His Majesty The Sorcerer King is... would like to speak to you..." Mare said in a timid but clear voice as he issued to the carriage at which point the door swung open, to revel Ainz Ooal Gown sitting inside. Mare noticed a small look of worry on the two men who were with The Emperor, especially the small one who had been there when Lord Ainz had "broken the record" of Dark Young summoned, Mare would get a flush of pride when he remembered how happy his master had been to see FIVE Dark Young... it was a new record after all!

As the carriage door shut behind them, Ainz got right down to business.

"Thank you for meeting me you two, first off Jircniv, I heard you've had an 'interesting' stay here in The Sorcery Kingdom?" Ainz asked.

"Ah, yes, well..." Jircniv went to regale him of what happened but His Majesty politely rose a hand shook his head as to say "I am aware".

"First let me say how pleased I am that you would consider personally doing any matter I uh... assigned to you..." Ainz said truthfully.

"Of course, His Majesty's will and happiness are mine as well!" Jircniv said wondering if he wounded a tad too much like one of his own servants. Ainz again nodded.

"But something urgent has come up, and given that you are already here... I think you are a good person to do this job for me." jircniv looked at his Lord waiting for his new orders.

"Something important...something of great importance! Has been discovered, and while I cannot go into too much detail... I can say that it involves going into the Slane Theocracy, deep into their lands...and as you are Royalty, and not... directly affiliated with me, I was thinking you could do this thing for me?" Ainz asked Jircniv thought and furrowed his brow.

"Me and The Theocracy... have a complicated history, as it is... they may see me as just a big threat as anyone your majesty could send," Jircniv answered honestly. Ainz shook his head.

"What I need there is not something I'm just willing to let them have... if I have to, I would rally every ounce of strength I have to crush The Theocracy outright to obtain this... place... it is unacceptable to allow the enemy to lay claim to such a prize! But, such an action, obviously, is reserved for last resorts." Ainz said knocking on the door, this was a signal for Mare to join them. Mare crawled into the carriage holding his skirt down so nobody could see his underwear. He gave a bow to the three people in the carriage before taking a seat next to his Lord.

"But I need someone who is... weak in physical ability, and also not directly affiliated with my gui...my Kingdom... and has access to lots of gold, you fit this bill perfectly I'm afraid..." Ainz explained, Jircniv was surprised to hear "gold" come into play. Ainz shook his hand.

"Obviously I don't expect for you to use your own gold, I will provide the vast amounts of gold you will be laying "claim to" when the time is right for its use." Ainz said so matter of factly Jircniv realized this was the work of intelligence beyond him, he would simply say "yes" to whatever fantastical job he was given. Not as he had any other choice...

"But I do want to give you a large amount of gold to take with you 'just in case'. Plus it will even further prove who you are if questions arise so..." Ainz rolled his hand in a knowing manner.

"SO! Your job... is to take little Mare here, to the entrance of this place, do not allow Him to enter.." Ainz said VERY directed at Mare more than Jircniv.

"Him?"

"At which point Mare will cast [GATE] and a large... a very large amount of gold will be sent to you, at which point you may consider all treasure and gold that shows up to be 'yours'. Then I want you to enter the store you will come across..." Ainz continued but Jircniv was so confused, he just listened.

"And simply buy everything and anything you can, I want you to start with the most expensive..." At which point Ainz showed him a scroll with all kinds of words and phrases he never seen before, but he recognized it as a list... as a shopping list.

"I especially want you to look for things called "data crystals" the more expensive, the better! Past that any kind of "ore" that you are unfamiliar with would be good, if it's called "prismatic ore, buy all of it, no matter what... but I don't suspect there will be any of that laying around. Another thing you probably won't see are class of items called "world items" or "guild items/weapon" these two are the most unlikely of objects to find, but please know that I want these above all else! Even the other two I mentioned, I just don't think this will be an issue is all..."

"So... am I to understand, His Majesty wants me to, infiltrate The Slane Theocracy, an act that could bring the war to both our nations, for the purposes of... shopping?" Jircniv asked in disbelief... NO! There had to be more to it... more to his... "10,000-year plan" as it were. Ainz looked glad as he raised his hands.

"GOOD! You understand then! Also as your cover here will be the first line of defense, when Mare here is with you...should you encounter anyone there..." Ainz looked at Mare and gave him a "thumbs up" even Mare was confused but still smiled.

"His help will be of utmost importance," Ainz explained.

"His?"

He looked at Mare with a "are you sure about this" look. Mare nodded and smiled.

"...also he is only to act as "support" if any fighting breaks out, do not think of using Mare as a means to escape or win a fight! He will only back up the stealth units and Soul Eaters I will be providing.

"Honestly I don't even want to send him, but he has told me how sorry he is for the way he showed you the other day and to "make up for it" he wants to help out with this, but he is sorry for how he behaved towards you, and I want him to get some experience in adventuring as well! Might 'build character'. But suddenly Ainzes expression changed.

"But his safety comes above all else... I hope I am understood in this?" Ainz further enforced how much he valued the well being of his adopted son.

"So then I think my wishes have been made clear? Yes? He said getting up in a dramatic manner and stepping out of the carriage, he turned to look at the occupants. He looked at Mare and wove.

"You be a good boy now Mare!" Ainz said, slightly out of character. But Mare nodded vigorously anyway. So, I've instructed your Soul Eater where to go, as well as the Soul Eater carrying the carriage of gold and your 'stealth unit'.

"Boy?" What's going on here? Is Mare into cross-dressing... at such a young age? No he's an elf, he could be older than me... is...is Mare a pervert, or does Ainz force him to dress like that?" He thought in his deepest part of his mind. Jircnivs eyes then noticed Mare wasn't wearing his 'wedding ring'. He wondered what another kind of weird and dirty perversions this elf had hidden behind such a sweet and innocent smile. Jircniv hoped inwardly that Mare didn't try to seduce him during their travels, that would be very... awkward. Suddenly Jircnivs eyeshot at the elf "child"... "How would I stop him? If this nonchild were to try and seduce me with magic... or even...by force!" Jircniv shook his head, he rather did NOT like the image that sprung into his head!

"I am pleased to see my old unit doing so well," Red said suddenly appearing beside Jircniv, he and Pe Riyuro jumped in startlement. Pe Riyuro especially screamed loudly.

"Oh!, Pe Riyuro that's right, Ai...I would like you to report to my offices a little later, I have something of great interest to both of us!" Ainz said if he could 'wink' he would have. The Quogue nodded, he never spoke up if he didn't need to in the presence of "the great ones". Pe Riyuro also left the carriage and waved goodbye to Jircniv.

"Hurry up and learn [MESSAGE] so we can talk more!" Pe Riyuro said laughing as he bid his group farewell. They also said their goodbyes, and then he was gone. Ainz looked at the carriage behind the one they were in and nodded in the satisfaction that the plan would work.

"Okay then, I believe everyone here knows..."

"Oh, there is one thing Your Majesty..." Jircniv said before he lost his chance, Ainz looked at him in a polite manner to finish his thought.

"Uh, as His Majesty is aware, I'm sure, if a ruler is absent from his throne for too long..." jircniv said scratching his head, Ainz chuckled and wove his hand.

"As soon as I found out you had left The Empire on my... task, I assigned a doppelganger that looks and acts in the same manner as you, he will do everything you would do, say as you would say and perform all tasks up to your personal standard, so you are "free to roam the lands in search of adventure and treasure!" Ainz said gesturing his hands into the air, he certainly was in a theatrical mood this today jircniv thought. Wait, will it be performing all my duties? Even personal ones? Jircniv once again shivered.

"So, if that's all then?" He scanned the group for any questions. no one had any so he nodded and cast... [GREATER TELEPORTATION] to return to his estate in E-Rantel, however...

"GREATER... TELEPORTAAA...TION!" He spoke loudly as he theatrically threw his arm into the air before vanishing. Jircniv was left speechless, yet again!

"So I guess we just go right back out onto the road?" Baziwood asked getting into the carriage with Nimble to join Jircniv, Red and now, Mare and taking a seat. The carriage was much like their old one that was destroyed but even more spacious, and a bit less conspicuous on the outside, it was a nice brown and green, something a Nobel might own if his estate was doing particularly well, but the inside was as nice as any room in Jircnivs castle, even the seats, which could fold out into two large beds (or one giant one). There were even more barrels of unlimited goods, now including cheese, beer, bread and nuts, and berries even. All of it endless and forever fresh. The temperature would become any temperature he wished and he was assured that the magical barrier now protecting the carriage would need something of the tenth tier to break, and even then it would buy enough time for Mare to cast [GATE]. That was the first thing they should do if they came under attack by a "powerful force" Mare explained as well as they rode. The journey was mostly silent until his curiosity no longer could contain him.

"Uh, Mare?" Jircniv said getting the young lad's attention.

"I do wish to apologize for calling Lady Bukubukuchagama what I did, Lord Ainz told me you felt bad, but I was in the wrong too, I hope you accept my apology," Jircniv said to the young boy in a cute dress. Mare just patted Jircniv familiarly on the shoulder and smiled.

"I should not have said you weren't my friend, I would like to be friends with you Mister Jircniv!" Mare said as cute as ever. Jircniv felt relief, he was glad Mare was so agreeable. but he needed to make sure of something, just to clear it up...

"Can I ask you something Mare?" He asked a bit nervous about what was coming, Mare just nodded.

"I, I really mean no insult or harm by this, this is just my...own ignorance on display so please bear with it..." Jircniv said a tad worried he'd see...those eyes again. Mare looked curious but gave a nod that it was Okay.

"Y, um, you're a boy... right?" He asked the small elf who had an amazing made brown hood pulled up over his head, there was a nodding motion.

"Yes, I am a boy." Mare just said silently. All the human members shot each other a glance of, "Wow!".

"And you uh, dress like a girl?" He said, delicately trying to get to the reason.

"Yes... I was told to dress like this!" He said proudly. The two knights looked at one another in a "are you serious?' look.

"SO AINZ IS THE PERVERT!" He yelled out in his mind, feeling better about his close proximity to Mare... everyone had their, tastes... Jircniv would not judge, but still...

"Ah so Mare, do we know how long till we get there?" Baziwood asked in a voice reserved for children. Mare thought for a second putting his finger to his chin and looking up thinking very hard.

"Well... we are, um, we are going the long way or, as Lord Ainz called it, "taking the scenic route" in order to keep up appearances of a casual visit if we are questioned on the way there...Mare said, then continued maintaining the adorable pose.

"Also on this route, there have been some disappearances of carriages and people belonging to The Sorcerer Kingdom, if we can find out anything about this while making out way to the Slane place, then we should is What Lord Ainz told me to tell you as well."

"So it will take much longer than usual, but once we have entered a certain distance into The Slane Theocracy, we will break to the store at full pace, if it is where His Majesty hopes it is still." Mare finished up.

"Hey, this place or thing in The Theocracies territory, is it possible this thing whatever it is, is responsible for the influx of 'adamantite' ranked adventures in The Theocracy as of late? It's true, adamantite rank teams were rare, and when one "sprang up" everyone took notice, but over the last eight or so months the theocracy had birthed three adamantite teams all of enormous, barely even heard of strength. And the truly odd part about all three of these teams was their attitude, as it was reported on all three teams, not only was their team names horrible, but they acted like "rookies" or "novices". They had next to no knowledge of the things they would defeat while casually chit-chatting or "acting like children fighting a dragon" as they LITERALLY were fighting a dragon...

"Mare nodded if it is as you just said then yes, if these teams had access to a lot of gold, this would account for that." He said nodding and thinking. He was right, every single member of the new three teams had at least one member in the team of worth, that is to say, he or she had a high social and class standing, meaning they had gold to spare.

"Well, what are we to do if we see them, or rather run into?" He asked Mare. Mare kept nodding in a manner not fitting his age.

"High chance we will! As we are headed towards their source of strength." He said.

"Yeah, if it were me, I'd keep our strongest member back and guard or keep an eye on this thing that brings magical weapons and the like when we out "adventuring". Baziwood exclaimed.

"At the very least, we can expect some kind of resistance when we begin closing in on the... on whatever it is..." Nimble added. they all looked around nodding.

"But we have four more Hanzo's and another Soul Eater right? Combined with the magic, uh, Mare can perform, we ought to crush anything we encounter right?" Jircniv stated. It seemed very unlikely these people would beat Red, let alone five of his kind... Everyone nodded, Jircniv was even sure Red was nodding invisibly. Once they hit the road that was not paved with stones but was simple dirt or sand roads they knew they were leaving there immediate territories controlled by The Sorcerer King. Mare was sleeping with a blanket over him, but he suddenly shot up awake, made a yelp of fear then said something about a 'magic circle'. jircniv was about to ask if the boy was okay but before he could say a thing their progress was halted unexpectedly, Jircniv sighed and frowned, this better not be something stupid like...

"HELLO FANCY RICH PEOPLE! PLEASE STAY CALM AND REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE!" A loud voice called out.

"Bandits..." Almost the second they left the Sorcerer's Kingdom, they were the victims of roadside robbery. Everyone looked at Jircniv to order the Hanzo's to"do their thing" but Mare shook his head. And pointed all around him.

"I can feel many magical objects at work in this area, this is a high tier trap we are in, this is probably the people who've been hitting our carriages." Mare said in a very low voice but also nodding his head as to say "this is good". Red nodded as to agree.

"They will probably take us somewhere, once there we will begin our..." Red was saying when a bright and holy light flooded the area with a kind of blue fire. Jircniv took a glance outside and saw several well dressed blonde men and women all holding some kind of object that was keeping the Soul Eaters in a dazed state.

"Those are robes worn by... The Black Scripture?" Jircniv thought, he'd heard on occasion about the spooky men of the Slant theocracy and how they wore robes resembling typical Slane casters but with some notable differences. Mainly the kind of 'gear' or weapons they use and their training was supposed to be even more elite than most Mythril ranked adventures could handle. At any rate, these people were not normal Theocracy troops.

"Now... Just WHY do you think we would WANT to target only people from the sorcery kingdom?" A man asked shaking his head and making an "I don't know' motion with their hands".

"They have a way to deal with his undead..." He thought just as he confirmed Jircniv's suspicions. He whispered to Mare, who just turned and put on a finger to his lips as in to say "don't talk".

"SHIT! I can't send him out to fight can I?" he remembered, but he could...

"We have a way to deal with his undead obviously!" He yelled out laughing. The rest of the group chuckled. Baziwood clicked his tongue and looked around nervously.

"This is bad right? I mean without our undead... we're in trouble unless mare here saves us" Baziwood whispered to Nimble who just scowled at the casters surrounding the carriage, they were preparing another spell of some kind, possibly an attack... Ibe nab walked up and looked in the carriage at the three humans and one dark elf. He immediately ran over to the one who was calling out taunts.

" I do believe I just caught myself an Emperor, but that little elf with the nice clothes... now I'm sure SHE will like to speak to her!" The man said as they seemed to be finishing up their long casting time. Mare just motioned that it's fine and to play along.

PART 11: Mare vs. Zesshi

The teleportation spell ended and it was silent outside of the carriage, the windows were open so they could see they were no longer outside. Jircniv looked on high alert, Mare finally got up and seemed ready to do something, Red vanished behind Jircniv. Baziwood and Nimble got in front of each door weapons drawn. They were prepared for the worst. But nothing came.

"Mare, are you okay?" Jircniv whispered, Mare looked at him and smiled as he patted Jircniv on the shoulder as to say 'it'll be ok weak human'. Oddly enough it did comfort him.

"Shall I go out and scout the area?" Red asked Mare.

"No, we need you here to protect me until we know what we're up against," Mare said looking a bit nervous but still ready to fight. He was already in the process of buffing everyone in the carriage.

[FLY]

[RABBIT FOOT]

[RABBIT EAR]

[ANTI EVIL PROTECTION]

[LESSER MIND PROTECTION]

[QUICK MARCH]

Most of these spells were for the benefit of Jircniv and while weak, they were instant he was going for quantity over quality of buffs, while only first and second tier, with the scaling they would receive from Mare's support passives their effects, was easily doubled. It was then he realized that, as did he, Red had a cute pair of Bunny rabbit ears sticking from his head. Before he could even think how silly it was his own rabbit ears picked up the sound of movement all around the carriage.

"We are being surrounded..." Red whispered, the two noded. But a voice broke their inner planning.

"We are fine as long as we stay here..." Said Mare.

"Mare, shouldn't you just cast [GATE] now?" Jircniv asked. Mare shook his head.

"We have a chance to find out who's been attacking our transports...this is part of the plan Lord Ainz laid out for me should we be attacked and abducted!" Mare said with a determined look but a girl's voice broke their conversation.

"I hope I finally hooked a good one." It said quietly, but their rabbit ears picked it up.. Red stood up and unsheathed his blade.

"You stay back and offer me support, I think it's time to fight this threat," Red announced. Mare didn't look so sure.

"Please come out so I can see what we've caught." It said calmly and sweetly, there was no malice in the voice. Red walked out.

"Oh... just another summoned undead eh?" The voice said, board. Red offered no retort but leaped at the figure. The girl with half black and half white hair shook her head, her eyes which were the opposite color of her hair looked amused as Red charged her with all his speed. He approached her from the front and swung his blade but last second used [TELEPORT] behind her, she was wielding a great scythe that radiated power but in its presence, he could not use any skills, Red realized he'd made a mistake. He'd try to use an ability but it was countered by a passive skill of her weapon. Her movements were sped up as well, this girl had been heavily buffed or she was wearing powerful gear on top of her already impressive power. Probably both.

[TURN ETHEREAL]

Red's whole body turned to a formless vapor and his sword passed harmlessly through the unamused girl.

[ASTRAL SMITE]

This spell would destroy any being made ethereal, Red knew he had fallen for a killing combo and hung his head in shame as a glowing light of death approached.

[REFLECT ALL]

But the superior spell cast last second by an elf jumping out of the carriage, reflected the blast to the girl, as she was not ethereal it did very minimum damage. The girls head spun to stare at Mare, this was what she was... oh it's a girl... how unfortunate. She was hoping to find a suitor among the varied people of the sorcerer kingdom, she had heard tales of very powerful people simply walking the streets, she finally found one, but she cannot mate with this one... shame she would just hope this girl had a powerful father or brother who she could trade her for, or just kill her, depends.

Red stood next to the girl, until her spell wore off he could not do any damage unless Mare restored his form, but Red suspected this black and white-haired elf girl would use that moment to strike Mare down.

"Seems you can reflect any spell I cast...How incredibly interesting, tell me... what's your name?" Mare thought for a bit then weakly said told her.

"Mare? A cute name I guess, um do you have a brother Mare? One who loves you and would come to rescue you?" She asked with no mocking tone. He shook his head no, what a weird question...

Red suddenly noticed the bevy of casters all along the outer rims of the room, he had known they were there, but just assumed they would use ranged attacks, but they were constantly showering this girl with buffs! It's how she could move literally twice as fast as anyone else, Red was fast enough but this spell had taken him out of the fight. Gap closing was a casters worst nightmare, and because Mare had to worry about Jircniv he wasn't able to fall back like he would like to in order to gain casting time so the girl, who had at least some melee ability slowly walked up to Mare. She was now in melee range of Mare, he was ready however there was a sight of fear on his face. Most of Mare's offensive abilities were heavy Area of effect spells, which required casting time, the fact that he let her get this close was a huge mistake. Her [DELAY TELEPORTATION] ring automatically activated, telling her where Mare would appear due to her close proximity to him when he cast it.

[GREATER TELEPORTATION]

[GREATER TELEPORTATION]

Mare cast the spell to blink away, but his opponent had guessed his location and matched his with her own, Mare was left wide open as her scythe came down, his dragon scale armor deflected most of the damage, however.

"I've won..." She said in a low boring voice. Mare was thrown into the carriage he bounced off the wheel and was thrown to the side, he shrieked out in pain but immediately got up, he now had the distance he needed.

[URIEL]

While not the most powerful spell, it was one of his stronger single target spells, he had to take into consideration Red and Jircniv. Yet nothing happened. the Elf girl was already using this time to land another slash, her blade once again caused sparks to fly off his chest, Mare's HP took another big hit as she swung it upwards, the blow knocked Mare up and onto his back.

"Why isn't he healing?" Red thought to himself, even if this woman could counteroffensive magic, healing magic still should work...

"Those clothes you have... not my style but they are really strong aren't they?" Mare grabbing his chest and picking his staff back up and nodded.

"But they aren't stopping the special effect of my scythe... so you can't win, Mare, it's bad luck you're a caster, I have the highest chance of winning against your kind." She said shaking her head. Mare didn't know why his spells would not come, this was the worst possible case scenario for him. He would have to rely on weaker instant cast spells to avoid the passive of her weapon. But whenever he would cast a fast spell that would not be countered one of the mages would throw up a barrier to reduce the damage and another would heal her, they had thought this fight out well.

"So this is your last chance, do you have a really strong Father? An uncle? or Brother? Anyone as strong as you but... you know a boy? Who will come to save you?" She asked bringing her scythe down again on Mare, his armor again held but his HP took another hit, he fell to his knees, he was in critical condition. Streams of blood were running down his mouth and he coughed crimson mist, the bleeding was internal, this was bad... Mare glared and grabbed his staff... No magic? FINE! Mare jumped up and swung his staff like a bat, his arms could generate much more attack than usual given his high level. She hadn't expected this attack and it connected, his staff hit her across the shoulder and sent her stumbling. But she stayed on her feet with a grin, a glowing amulet showing she had high physical resistance to blunt damage.

"You're so strong Mare... I really wish we could have babies!" She giggled as she readied her final spell on the young dark elf. [REALITY SL...

"HE'S A BOY!" A voice cried out. Immediately the spell fizzled out. And She looked at Mare shocked. She looked at The Emperor suspiciously.

"It's true he's a boy..." jircniv said a second time.

"Nice try but... Are you really?" While she was doubtful, her silence ability was still active, so there was no threat of trickery, even the Hanzo had taken a meditation stance waiting for his sub banishment to wear off. Mare Glared at her and nodded.

"It's...IT'S TRUE! People always think I'm a girl because I dress like this! But I'm a boy!" He cried proudly getting back to his feet. But just as soon as he got up he was knocked back down as she tackled him, her face was literally only an inch away from his and she was straddling him.

"MARRY ME!" She cried in happiness.

"M..marry you?" Mare asked amazed, by now they had become more civil, Mare was Healed and they sat in a nice room. But were still heavily outnumbered. The half-elf Zesshi sat uncomfortably close to Mare looking at his bare legs and blushing. Mare tried to pull his skirt over his legs and blushed himself.

"Uh... Zesshi... I.." Mare began, she looked at him in hopeful expectancy.

"I can't marry you..." Mare said meekly his ears felt like they were burning up and they were red. Zesshi looked disappointed but shrugged.

"It's sad... that our child will not know his father, but if that's how it will be..." She said rubbing her tummy. Mare looked panicked.

"I uh... I don't... I mean I can't..." He blushed even brighter than before. She looked annoyed.

"What? You don't have one?" She grabbed between his legs as he yelped out and jumped away from her.

"You're fine down there, so why not have a baby with me then I'll let you and The emperor go!" She said with a nice smile that had a slight hint of sadism to it. Mare's mind raced thinking about what he could do to get out of this situation. But his long pause made Zesshi frown even more.

"Okay look, Mare, this is really easy... put a baby in me or I will kill the Emperor and those two humans he was with." She stood up and put her hands on her hips and looked at the nervous dark elf.

"Then I will make you mine!" She said with another smile bringing out her scythe again and spinning it menacingly yet skillfully around. The fact that she could keep Mare silenced even though he had items to stop that (as it was an effect from her weapon, not a spell) means she had him captured. Mare swallows his saliva and gulped. How did he get into this mess?

High in the sky there twirls and spins a frost dragon ridden by an elf girl, they fly through the clouds as fast as he can while she pats him and gives commands, he obeys and does a barrel roll. Then the contact from a spell perks her ears up. She heard Mare's voice-over [MESSAGE].

"Go ahead Mare, I can barely hear you so you'll have to concentrate... huh? Why are you asking about THAT now of all times? Huh... What? Where?...MARRIED?!" Aura fell off the dragon she was riding and was in total free fall. She didn't want to die, but her brain just had to process what she heard, as a result, her motor functions ceased and Hejinmal had to spin down to catch his free-falling master.

"MISTRESS AURA ARE YOU OKAY?!" Hejinmal asked, but Aura was still too dazed to respond.

A skeleton sits in his room reviewing a document that he's not really reading when Aura's voice appears in his head.

"Aura slow down I can't make out what you're saying... Mare? Why...huh? EEHHHHHHHHH?" Ainz tore the document in half, Albedo frowned as she spent most the morning writing that. But she looked at him curiously.

"Mare's been captured along with The Emperor! And their demands are simple..." Ainz said in disbelief. Albedo picked up the parchment and dramatically threw it away. She flung her hair back a bit.

"So are we going to war then?" She asked getting ready to cast her own [MESSAGE].

"They want to trade Mare's hand in marriage for the items of the Six Great Gods of The Slane Theocracy... and his wife wants to defect to Nazarick after the marriage and delivery of the items..." Ainz said even more amazed. Albedo raised her eyebrow, she didn't seem all that interested.

"So what is it then? This will put us directly at odds with the Slane Theocracy, as well as making a personal enemy of the Black Scripture..."(learned from mind-reading Clementine)

"But what if these "six items" are ancient guild weapons or even world items... The power of Nazarick would gain drastically..." Ainz said pondering, but he still didn't like that this was basically happening at knifepoint. Albedo rolled her eyes for having to ask the same question again.

"So is it "love or war"?" she really needed an answer on this.


	7. Lost Worlds

"Can I ask you a question?" Red asked sitting next to Mare. Mare looked up to the ninja and nodded.

"Why did you lose to that woman?" Red asked directly. After taking some time to think he answered.

"We needed time to set up this attack, and to make sure she was the one in charge of the recent carriage attacks." He explained. Red thought for a second.

"Is that why you choose to protect me with [REFLECT ALL] instead of simply killing her?" Mare nodded again. Killing her serves no purpose for us, she knows things we need to know."

"I was thinking that you could have easily won if you had hit her with a spell instead of saving me with the shield... Master Mare, I am not worth such things..."

"I... I just didn't want to see you go away is all..." Mare said truthfully. Red shook his head.

"My purpose is to serve so that the ones of Nazarick my live, if you jeopardize yourself for my safety... then my point is lost and I am a liability, not a protector," Red explained. Mare nodded, he knew what Red was saying was right.

"That isn't to say that I don't... appreciate it, if you really think that 'by saving me' i can fulfill my purpose better...than I should not say a thing, I just need you to understand that you must let me fall if you can go on" Red told his master but understood his point was made.

"Do you know where The Emperor is?" Mare asked.

"I have located him, and he is okay for the time, but that woman... she was wearing..." Mare nodded, he had noticed it too, the one known as Zesshi was wearing high end 'Yggdrasil' trinkets and gear.

"This woman is no doubt in control of our target location." Mare nodded once again, he had realized that as well. Red sighed as he regretted what he was about to say.

"Master Mare... contrary to my goal of ensuring The Emperors safety, I think it's time you simply go back to Nazarick and leave him to his fate, or at least allow me a "suicide run" to try and retrieve him, I am more than confident that, notwithstanding that woman, I can easily kill everyone in this base...and if my unit has made it inside this tower, my job may already be done, however, we know enough that leaving to report what we know would still be a win in most cases.

"I've been in contact with my sister, there is no reason for me to leave... she has been relaying my information back to Lord Ainz and he's instructed me to stay here if I am not in any immediate danger," Mare explained to his subordinate.

She told me to "not do anything risky and just wait 'big sis is on the way'. Mare said smiling.

"But when the time comes...and the attack is launched you must get Jircniv to safety before I can cast my magic, this place won't be safe for him." Red nodded, he understood what was coming... if Mistress Aura was on her way... then the one known as Zeshi had been caught in the perfect of pincer attacks...

"Understood, when you command me to I will begin my assault and get The Emperor to safety." Red agreed.

Back above in the sky Aura's look was that of determination as she made her dragon take her to battle.

"Mistress Aura? Why are we headed to The Slane Theocracy?" Hejinmal, the frost dragon asked the girl on his back.

"Because I know where Mare is... and Lord Ainz said that it was a good idea to wait till Mare could identify their leader... and confirm they know of "the store"...but honestly married? What kind of weirdo did my brother run into?" Aura asked herself and giving her head a shake.

"So what are we gonna do when we get there?" He asked a little worried. Aura snickered.

"Isn't obvious? We show them the power of Nazarick!" Aura smiled as she slung the giant scroll that was her world item that she was allowed to use over her back. As the tower she was headed to came into view, with a few pats to his back she ordered him 'down', Hejinmal lowered his altitude as to not be seen so easy by possible lookouts. The wind whipped through Auras hair pushing it back.

"Take me to the top of the tower, Mare should be getting ready on his end." The frost dragon swept across the land then pitched up when the tower got near, climbed straight up and landed on the roof of the tower. Six very terrified lookouts all scrambled to summon their angels but were turned to statues of ice as he covered the top with the frost breath that had failed him before. Aura did a flip landing next to the terrified looking artwork her dragon had made. And checked the time on her watch then cast [MESSAGE] to her little brother.

Mare's ears perked up when he got to his feet. Red knew that it was time and made his move for The Emperor. Red reflected on the enemies situation. The first big mistake they had made, was believing Zesshis silence spell had affected Mare, Red thought as he cut down two surprised patrols. Even Red had been fooled by Mare's sell of 'getting beat'. "Beating" Mare had made her overconfident, but also, her escape routes had been noted, Mare saw two YGGDRASIL items that would allow her to escape should she need to. Letting Mare see these objects and then cast [MESSAGE] was why she was doomed to capture, so long as Aura can beat her that is.

The second was believing that the "tame undead ability" they used on the carriage during the ambush that froze the Soul Eaters had also worked on the Hanzo's. Red did not know where the second carriage with the gold and his unit were at, but he knew the people who had received the carriage were very much dead. So back up for this base would be unlikely, or... Four Hanzo's escorting Jircniv appeared. Or they had already fulfilled his mission upon hearing Aura's dragon breath attack. Jircniv nodded to Red as to say "as expected of one of "The Four". Red smirked underneath his mask. Baziwood and Nimble followed behind them but stripped of their gear.

Two fatal errors will lead to their complete defeat it would seem.

A large black wolf made its way down one hall, whenever it came across a terrified human a simple paw swipe was all it took to kill them. With his nose up in the air Fenrir could locate every person in this tower. One should have the faint smell of Mare upon her... there! Fenrir howled as Aura popped out from behind his head. A body went flying as Fenrir blasted past a small group of casters, tearing them to shreds just for fun.

"Found her? Good! Take me to the one that hurt Mare!" She ordered, the smile on her face from before, gone.

Around this time the tower began to shake from the bottom. As Mare cast earth magic, the tower began to sink straight down into the earth, the tower would become a tomb, the only exit at the top, where a dragon and a certain invisible lizard lie in wait. If you did not have a magical means of escape, you were trapped. Aura and her pets culled the enemies as they made their way down, at the same time the Hanzo unit killing any and all they could find as they worked their way up with ease, the multiple reports of attacks had sent the Slane Theocracy casters stationed here into a panic. When they met in the middle it was before a giant door, Fenrir nodded that the girl was there, but that she wasn't alone. Aura nodded and dismounted Fenrir.

"Okay, you keep killing anyone you find, make your way to Mare and bring him back here fast okay? I might need help if there are two of them. I promise to be careful." She directed her wolf as she patted his nose. Soon he was off. Aura opened the door, at the end of a dark hallway sat a girl playing with a weird cube, Aura wondered what kind of power the cube she held had, so became suspicious of it. Zesshi noted her suspicion and set it down.

"Don't worry 'Aura', it's just a child's toy," Zesshi said with over brimming confidence.

"I see my brothers been talking about me, what did he say exactly?" She was curious, and the longer she could stall this out before the fighting began increased her odds of Mare getting here to stop her from escaping and making this fight even, speaking of which Aura did not see the other one, planning an ambush of some kind no doubt, whatever, she'd play along for now. Winning was easy, capturing their prey as per orders was the tough part.

"It would seem my offer of marriage was rejected," Zesshi said taking up her weapon from before. Aura produced a whip and cracked it menacingly as she walked up to the half-elf.

"Any girl that wants to marry my brother has... literally gotta go through me first, so this is just practice for the future I suppose." Aura said shaking her head. Zesshi frowned.

"Why do you care so much for him? Why not just 'give' me him in exchange for the items of power and information I have access to!" Zesshi scoffed. Aura blinked a tad confused continuing to close the distance.

"Because someone very important asked me to do something a long long time ago..." Aura explained. Zesshi's eyes looked bored as she walked to meet Aura in the middle of the spacious open hall they walk in. Zesshi was the first to move, flying through the air she met Aura face to face before she brought the crest of the blade of her weapon at Auras smirking face. Just as she was about to cleave the dark elf girls face in half Aura bent her back in reverse and sprang back up slamming her forehead into Zesshis face, the impact sent Zesshi reeling as blood ran out of her nose and her eyes teared up, that had really hurt she thought. but Aura was already following up with her whip which wrapped around the scythes handle.

[DISARM POLEARM]

Zeshis weapon flew from her hands, Aura whipped it away into the air.

[GREATER TELEPORTATION]

But Zeshi teleported to her weapon and unleashed a ranged attack. Backed by her magic. Aura smiled, that's one [GREATER TELEPORTATION] down. One more to go till she can't use that spell to escape... but...

[REALITY SLASH]

Zesshis 'ace in the hole' attack, nobody had ever been able to withstand it even once! and it worked. The attack easily bypassed Auras defenses and cut through her body. Auras right arm fell to the ground covering the floor in blood as she let out a cry of pain, before she could even react Zesshi was attacking at full strength at the face of Aura in an 'uppercut motion'. for the finish, making sure to not hit the dragon scale armor they wore that deflected her attacks against Mare the day before, but just to be sure...

[REALITY SLASH]

At point-blank range she hit Aura in the face, the distance meant that evasion wasn't possible, her overconfidence had been her downfall. The blow was fatal as the blade carved out a slice of Aura cute face, but instead of the warm spray of blood against her face that Zesshi was expecting, instead came a laughter sound as the body burst into a puff of smoke. Zesshi spun around furious and looked around to see an unharmed Aura wagging her finger, a kind of vapor was coming from her mouth and nose, it had been an illusion? But it had felt so real!

"Wow! [REALITY SLASH] is a good one! I knew a knight that was amazing with that spell. But I'm betting two casts a day is all you have in you right? Zesshi clicked her tongue and got into a defensive stance. Her ace had been played out, now it was time to focus on retreat, she had two methods left to her to get away still.

"Okay good! That was the only spell I was worried about." Aura said beaming with confidence. Zesshi began to think of her options... they were too limited, but her options grew even smaller when Auras whip wrapped around her waist too fast to even react, it tightened up and she fell to her knees, her body was racked with pain as her strength was sapped from her.

"Mare told me about what your weapon could do, mine also has a special ability, guess what it is?" Aura laughed mocking her captured prey. As the whip tightened around her body breathing became harder she had to free herself but her magic would not come... she became light headed as if she had tried to cast a spell without enough... mana! Her whip was draining all her mana at a fast rate and supplying that mana into Aura, this could be fatal if she were to hold her down like this. But killing was not the order Aura had received as this girl had some particularly interesting information to tell her Lord.

"Okay I can see that I've won... but this next part, is for Mare, I'm not into torture or hurting others for no reason... but I am not okay with how you treated my brother, so just bear with the pain, okay?" Aura said with a none pleased look on her face, she brought Zesshi to her knees, grabbed a handful of the elf's black and white hair and yanked her head up as Aura swung her fist into Zesshi's face. This was really just to 'bait out' this other person that had kept themselves hidden, but it was also "for Mare" as she stated. After three clean punches to the face, Zesshi crumpled to the ground spitting out a couple of teeth, Aura looked around still waiting to be attacked but it never came.

"I'm like, seriously going to kill her now!" Aura proclaimed yanking Zesshi off the floor by the hair once again. She pulled her arm back as far as it would go, Zesshis broken face offered no resistance.

"One..." Aura began to spin her fist in a 'here it comes way', she looked around...

"Two..." Still looking around, no sound or anything, was Fenrir wrong? Or did this person run away when they saw how badly Aura had won? Either way, they would meet a bad end.

"Threeeeeee!" Aura said very loudly as she rocketed her fist for the final blow toward the bleeding face. Her fist stopping just inches from taking her life.

"Whatever..." Aura spat a little disappointed that her bluff didn't work. She would just capture both of them with her world item, she didn't want to use it, but the fact that the other person had not revealed themselves meant this was the best way to ensure neither would escape, and she had been given permission by her lord to use it if she wanted.

Zesshis health regen items were working now and her face was mending, the pain was leaving and she could move again! The dark elf brat had taken too long in an attempt to bring out a person who would never reveal themselves under these circumstances! What luck! And she had one more cast of [REALITY SLASH] saved up, she just needed this stronger opponent to let down her guard, like right...she knew this was the real one this time, and she was right..."NOW!" Zeshi cried out in victory!

[REALITY SLASH] But where there should have been a face rendered in two, her attack instead just spun off into the darkness. Zesshi was alone, forever, no matter where she looked, just an endless sprawling pitch black void in every direction.

At that moment of decision, Zesshi could have used her last [GREATER TELEPORTATION] to escape. But instead her gut reaction was to attack, and that cost her her freedom.

"HELLO?!" She screamed out, but all she heard was her own cry travel away and never echo back. She yelled again even louder but there was nothing to return her call. She cast all sorts of magic until her mana ran too low.

"Where... where am I?" She asked, but the voice was that of a terrified child, not the overconfident fighter from before.

"Mother..." she cried out softly.

"..help." A sobbing child futility called out amidst the ocean of never-ending black.

Aura was knelt over, rolling up a giant scroll that was stretched out. On it, she saw darkness wrapped around a crying half elf half human child. Suddenly a pair of arms grabbed Aura from behind, she had guessed that the "other person" had escaped during the fight after all for only a second and had fallen prey to the sneak attack she was suspecting would come during the fight, not after it! She tried to react to this surprise embrace but it was too late for her... Mare had successfully "sneak hugged" his Ranger sister... something he'd been trying to do since they were born! Aura was defeated!

"Sister was so cool!" Mare cried out in happiness as he rubbed his face against hers. She laughed and looked up and Fenrir who had delivered Mare as requested.

"Makin' me come all the way out here to get you after a bad date?" She teased her brother, but he did not get the joke.

"A Date?" Mare blinked.

"You're hopeless Mare!" She said as she shook her head and put her arms up in an 'I give up'" motion.

"Oh, where did you send her?" Mare asked concerned.

"I was told not to kill her so I just locked her up in 'my prison'." Aura explained her thumb pointing to a scroll that was now strapped to her back. 'The world item Depiction of Nature and society'.

"So lets [GATE] home fast so we can get to Nazarick and earn us some head pats!" Aura squealed tussling her cute little brother's hair. He cried out in happiness thinking about how he would get to share the head pats this time around!

"So then... is that it?" Mare asked surprised at how easy the mission had progressed. As he cast [GATE] and the portal tried to open up. Mare cocked his head a tad confused, something was wrong with his [GATE], it wasn't working.

"Mare!" Aura cried out in a panic, he looked at his sister and saw immediately what had made her sound off an alarm of surprise. Standing on the other side of the [GATE] portal was Zesshi! And she was holding a giant scroll in her hands, a scroll until just seconds ago was strapped to Auras back, a wicked grin crossed her face.

"I'm pretty good at puzzles, ya know?" She snickered holding up the scroll high above her head in a victorious pose! As Zesshi was not one for over theatrics this pose served the purpose of drawing the attention of the two dark elves and wolf away from the emerging figure who had been lying in wait for this moment this... "one out of a thousand moment."

Zesshi and this person had not planned this out, this was not some great ruse that played out in her mind, no this was just a consequence of a single order Zesshi had issued before this fight began.

"No matter what, do not reveal yourself unless you are sure 'Downfall of Castle and Country' will take effect!" And Zesshi holding up an item of such power that she did not have before, could only mean one thing, a possible opening! After a flash of light, there was buzzing of power, as Zesshi used [FLASH] to blind mare. Mare rubbed his eyes to see he was surrounded. Zesshi was in front of him, for some reason Fenrir was flanking him, where was his sister? His answer came in the form of a familiar whip wrapping around his arms and body. The pain that followed was terrible, his already low mana was getting sucked out. He turned to see his sister with a dark look on her face, the whip that bound him down was Auras.

"Just behave, okay Mare? I have to do this" her voice was devoid of the love she would always have for him and she was hurting him! Zesshi motioned to the person who had enslaved Auras mind to quickly follow them as she, Zesshi, Fenrir and a captured Mare walled to the back of the room they were at.

"Aura?" The lady with the white dress asked her new slave, Aura turned to wait for her orders.

"Have your 'pets' remove any vermin that's in the tower would you?" Aura nodded as seconds later four very surprised Hanzo were betrayed by the beats they were riding upon and destroyed without mercy. As for Red, he stood at the top of the tower, the lizard that Aura controlled was behaving oddly, and He had felt no kind contact with his unit. He turned to look at Jircniv and shook his head. But even as he tried to creep away the lizard took notice and attacked Red and The Emperor. He could hear the roar of the beasts that were coming up behind him to back up their companions soon they would be overrun...

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Fun and games

Demiurge walked to the throne room, his Lord and Master had summoned everyone due to some "slip up". He smiled as he remembered his Lord's words to him.

"Demiurge, I will at times... purposely make mistakes in order to test you and your plans ability to adapt." Ainz Ooal Gown had told his protege and demon master Demiurge. But even with this handicap of a 'heads up' Ainz had so graciously provided him, never did his Lord test him, honestly, he was becoming worried that he had missed his masters "flaw" and had failed miserably, how utterly stupid he felt. BUT THEN!

"Demiurge, the plan to attack The Black Scripture has ended in the worst possible case scenario... Aura has been mind controlled by the same item that took control of Shalltear, what's worse she has Mare and Jircniv hostage, also the world items they have will be at their disposal as well..." Demiurge chuckled as he remembered his Master acting like this was "a real problem" to His Majesty.

"Say no more Lord Ainz!" Demiurge said with a smirk. As if his Lord was not nice enough, he laid down even further rules for Demiurge to increase the "challenge" of this exercise. How thoughtful his Lord was!

"Demiurge, I know this may be asking a lot... but is it possible to rescue the twins without resorting to killing them and resurrecting them? If I know Aura she will be devastated by this scenario of her "betrayal" ... I would hate to have to slay her and her brother just because I messed up." His Lord had pretended to be "at his wit's end" to further this test as to say "I want YOU to solve this riddle I have made Demiurge and you may not rely on my wits to aid you!" THIS is the test his majesty had in store for him? And he even had the stakes so high as to use fellow guardians AND world items? His Majesty sure was a dramatic person, after all, it would seem.

"Hehehe" He chuckled as Demiurge pushed up his glasses. Thinking of what to do.

"314." Indeed, such a low number was unsatisfactory, he would need to double...no TRIPLE that... but as for now...

"I have thought of 314 ways to win this 'test' as his Majesty has ordered as well as fulfill all parameters..." Demiurge chuckled. As this was his first test, it was only to be expected that it would be this easy... a 'tutorial in his Majesty's wisdom and guidance' if you will.

However... do I go with the plan of "do it fastest but sacrifice the Hanzo known as 'Red'" or go the other route of total efficiency and not lose a single game piece, but risk taking a little longer? Demiurge frowned. The answer was simple... the one that would please His Majesty the most! But that too would require some extra thought time then...

"What fun!" He exclaimed to himself as he adjusted his gloves before opening the door to the throne room where the worried looks of everyone greeted him, all the floor guardians and most of the maids were in attendance, even Victim had been summoned to watch Demiurge perform this test!. By the time the door swung open Demiurge had his "new master plan" version 778... But secretly, he thought deep down to himself...

"But still, a real challenge would have been nice..."

Back in the tower, Jircniv was worried.

"Red? What's going on... why did the mood suddenly change?" Jircniv asked the ninja that had situated himself between him and the lizard that should be helping them escape.

"I do not know the reason... but it would seem that Lady Aura's pets consider us the enemy..." Red said keeping his eye on the invisible lizard that was aggressively making its way across the ice-covered tower top, but that now was ground level with the earth because of Mares magic. Red understood that with the 'buffs' this lizard was receiving from its master, Aura. He had very little chance of winning before they were overrun by the beasts coming from behind them... also there was the matter of...

"I don't know why... but Mistress Aura has told me to kill the both of you." A fat frost dragon said landing next to the lizard in order to give it cover. Red clicked his tongue, just a single blast of this Dragon's breath attack would kill The Emperor. While he could easily kill the dragon, to do so would mean sacrificing the emperor, an act that definitely was not in his job description at the moment.

"So, I'm sorry about this... but it can't be helped..." Hejinmal said as he sucked in a large breath. Pointed his head toward the two of them and let loose a torrent of freezing death. The torrent of ice rushed past Red missing him. Obviously, Hejinmal would not aim at the Hanzo, learning his lesson about 'ice and undead' from earlier. Red spun around expecting to see the still frozen body of Jircniv. However, the Dragon had missed Jircniv as well? The ice hit the entrance they had just exited from sealing it up, ice formed and began to swell around the corridor, blocking their only exit from the battlefield, he had trapped them herewith them.

"No... wait..." He had cut off the entrance to the mass of animals coming to flank them, just then Hejinmal spun and hit the lizard with a mighty tail strike that sent the lizard flying several feet away, it landed on its feet however ready to tongue strike back, but it's movements were sluggish, it was a cold-blooded animal, even a magical beat as this still had biological restrictions, and fighting in a cold environment was not Optimal for Quadracile. To further force this he was met with a blast of freezing cold dragon breath as Hejinmal let out another stream of ice and frost. Hejinmal understood the difference in power between him and Quadracile, they had spared many times during training and Hejinmal would never be able to withstand more than a single attack from the lizard. But that always from a "hidden" position, this time he had his sparring friend in HIS territory, he'd try to use this advantage smartly, but as he was ready to fight to the death just as two people got up on his back.

"I do not know why you remained loyal to us when they did not... but please get myself and the Emperor out of here!" Red asked. Hejinmal felt a tad guilty, he knew beating Quadracile was impossible for him and had wanted to flee, but when news of his cowardice reached his mistress when she was feeling better... he'd have to do SO MANY tail whips! But if someone ordered him to run away...

"Okay hold on!" Hejinmal cautioned as he readied to take off at full speed, they gave him a "go go go!" pat on his back when they were prepared and he sprang into the air like a cat leaping up for a bird that flew over its head. He stretched his wings out and pushed off. As the dragon flew away to safety, he stopped and was brought crashing to the ground, like he had been chained to the earth the whole time. Hejinmal groaned in pain as he got back up making sure to shelter the small ones on his back, however, Quadracile's tongue was wrapped around his tail, he could not escape. Before he could think of what to do there was a flash of silver followed by a trail of blood, Red had cut the lizard's tongue off and freed Hejinmal. Hejinmal clicked his tongue at the thought of his, usually friendly, lizard pal in so much pain, but the wound was not fatal, he would be better after Mistress Aura got better as well. And with that, he jumped up again to fly to freedom. After he had cleared the area he spun around, finally, they could talk.

"I'm sorry but when I heard Mistress Aura tell me to kill you guys I knew she must not be feeling well. My owner would never have me to do something so cruel!" Hejinmal said shaking his head in worry for Aura. Secretly Jircniv had a new found respect for the mind of a Dragon.

"The rest are mind-linked with her so probably don't even know what going on, but as I uh... am still in training, I don't deserve that honor yet," Hejinmal explained to the two why he had not turned when the other had.

"Just get us out of here!" Red ordered, Hejinmal nodded and took off for E-Rantel. He tried to fight back the tears that formed when he thought of his mistress all alone in there.

"MISTRESS AURAAAA, PLEASE BE OKAAYYYYY!" He whined under his breath.

In the vault room of the tower, Zesshi made plans with her follower on how to deal with the incoming attack. Mare struggled against his sister's bindings, but his strength was all but gone.

"Mare, don't struggle okay? There's no reason to fight your big sister, just sit there like a good boy." She commanded her little brother. But he tried to stand.

"Sister...?" Mare cried out tears streaming down his face, he began to cry.

"Make him silent!" A voice commanded Aura, she nodded and gave her whip a harsh tug which brought Mare up into the air and then back to the ground, the blow had not been hard, but it had hurt a lot knocking the wind from Mare, he coughed and gasped for air. There was not a single shred of remorse or any look of any kind on Aura's face as she looked unemotionally down at her brother. Yet a tear did escape her emotionless uncaring blue eye. Deep... deep down, Aura was screaming at the top of her lungs that she could not use.

"We have a base filled with magical creatures to control as guards, and two Nazarick generals as our hostages!" Zesshi snickered at how she had clutched victory at the last second from the jaws of defeat! They would even get the 'world item' from Mare... eventually, a wicked smile crossed her face as she looked at her helpless "fiancee", breaking him in would be a chore, but it would probably, more fun than work, she chucked again, finally a day where she was not bored!

"I'm sorry but The Emperor has managed to escape." Aura informed her masters.

"What? HOW?" The lady who wore the dress that controlled Auras body barked.

"My dragon is not listening to my commands." She said in a voice devoid of emotion. Zesshi shook her head, what they had gained did not matter compared to losing one human that did not really matter anyway.

Mare coughed a bit but was looking around the room, Demiurge had just sent him a [MESSAGE] asking about the layout of the room, and a general rundown of his situation. He told him told not to be worried and simply to wait for the show to begin. Mare only hoped his sister would be okay...

"Who's he talking to I wonder? Aura noticed her little brother talking in his head to someone using [MESSAGE] should she tell her masters about this? Well her standing orders were, "kill all the vermin in the tower and help them retake/hold it against all enemy forces..." the second one was "Obey Zesshi as you would me." the lady with the robe instructed. And finally, there was "Make him silent." But as [MESSAGE] did not make any noise she saw no reason to interrupt her brother, he was such a good boy! Oh but... almost as if she realized something didn't add up she looked at her brother and the strap that led to her hand. This was hurting Mare! Why did she... oh yes, her very first order, "subdue your brother without killing him." Aura shook her head, well she had done as asked, but still, why was Mare so worried about her? She could pick up on her little brother's emotions and right now he wasn't scared, all he was concerned about is...

"...Me?" She wanted to hug Mare and let him know it would be fine, seeing him cry was the worst! But it was then her new masters became extremely on edge.

"My [DELAY TELEPORTATION] ring just activated! We are going to be under attack soon!" Zesshi yelled getting up and away from the place she felt the... two? Just two? Coming... Aura took up a position to guard her master's positions, she would kill anyone who tried to hurt her new masters, oh, but it was okay she knew the person who suddenly appeared in the arms of the other one she knew.

"WHHAAAA" Was all Zesshi got out before clouds of flying insects filled the room, biting and stinging every hostile presence, she could not see what was happening but she was able to jump above the clouds of poisonous nuisances, her vision fuzzy and her movements sluggish, the bugs were having a series of status effects on her and everyone else. They all dispersed to the edge of the giant room they were in, the bugs stayed in the center of the room hovering like a black cloud till they slowly dispersed and what has left a little girl in a maids outfit, she seemed cute enough but there was something... off by the way she looked. The bigger threat, however, was the man standing next to her. He had a strange orange suit, and wore spectacles over his jewel eyes, his black spiked hair shone with perfect detail. While she stood there perplexed the man gave a deep bow as if he were about to introduce himself but instead he yelled out an order of some kind to his maid.

"DISARM YOURSELF OFF ALL MAGICAL ITEMS AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!" He commanded his maid who looked to be as old as Zesshi herself or even younger. But what an odd order to give her! Did they come here just to surrender... no WAIT! Zesshi looked on in disbelief as her ally, the one who had put the elf girl under her rule, removed the item that had won the day and placed it on the ground, then giving a deep bow, naked! What was she seeing right now? Zesshi didn't know this, but this was a special ability of Demiurge to make weak people do as he commanded. At that time a giant demon of the huge statue appears behind Aura that Demiurge summoned and grabbing her from behind with a hug, just strong enough to keep her from moving around. the strange maid girl whose face did not change at all ran over to grab the world item robes and slipped them on.

"Okkkaaayyy Auraaa, youuu cann comeee backkkk to ourrr sidddde noooow!" The Spider maid said in a voice so cute as she commanded her friend to return to her original side of loyalty using the very item that enslaved her to free her. With that, everything made so much more sense to Aura, she undid the straps around her beloved brother and gave him her strongest 'mana potion she had' after drinking it he nodded and healed himself. Zesshi slowly backed up stunned, how could this have happened so fast? She had WON, hadn't she? It was then that the attention of all three-floor guardians and a girl with a maids uniform was turned to Zesshi. As the thought of using the scroll strapped to her back began to form she was already brought down to her knees by a mana draining whip that was attached to a very angry looking elf girl. Demiurge walked over to the still struggling but tired Zesshi and placed his hand on her shoulder before she lost consciousness and slipped into sleep.

"TO BE EXPECTED!" Demiurge exclaimed at the top of his voice and applauded his fellow members of Nazarick. Everyone had performed flawlessly, and with the exception of a lizard with a hurt tongue, not a single Nazarick casualty past those four poor Hanzo's... Demiurge frowned, he really would have liked to save them as well... but unlike his Lord and Master Ainz Ooal Gown, he is unable to actually see into the future, he can only plan for it best he can, and hope his plans meet the expectations of the one that played with everyone as his own personal game pieces The Lord and King of the Sorcery Kingdom and The Great Tomb of Nazarick Ainz Ooal Gown!

"What do you order me to do my master?" The prostrating naked woman asked Demiurge, he had forgotten all about that one, he thought for a second then snapped his fingers. His side project was running very well and to be honest, he no longer needed... scroll material as they had stockpiled so much after his visit to the Holy Kingdom! But Demiurge knew that a wasted resource was a wasted opportunity, so he would send her to 'the farm' anyway... as for the other one...

Zesshi lay there face down in front of Demiurge. He relieved her of the scroll and returned it to Aura who looked ashamed for having lost it in the first place...and what she had done, she wanted to burst out and cry, but she had better control of herself than that, but deep down Aura would never forgive himself for hurting Mare...never.

"Entoma... wake her and ask her to tell us what she knows about these!" He said stripping the high-end gear and trinkets that were made in Yggdrasil off the young half elf's body.

Many days later... It was a boring day like any other, Zesshi looked at the giant sealed doors in disinterest as she fumbled with the toy cube in her hands. Her orders to protect the six holy objects still stood, it would seem her failed "side project" had not been discovered by her superiors and after returning the tower to its previous state,a few lies here and there was all it took to keep her actions hidden as she was the only survivor of the "Elf Kingdoms attack". The theocracy already hated the Elf King, so pinning the "recent scuffles" on him was not so hard, they were all too eager to believe he had started his movements "from the shadows" against The Theocracy, and they made 'plans' to counter The Elf King at every turn, to that end they summoned all the new and old adamantite teams that called the theocracy home to the capital for a meeting of military importance. Zesshi wondered if refreshing The Theocracies hate for the Elven King would end up in a total war between the two nations in earnest... if so, it would make one nice distraction while her masters pillaged the place of power on The Theocracies lands. Zesshi smiled as she completed the stupid kids game and under her breath she smiled and whispered.

"Glory to Nazarick!"

-epilogue-

Jircniv walked into his throne room, while it felt good to be back, he could not act that way as for as far as his Empire knew he'd only been gone "a day or so." But sitting down on the familiar chair did make him feel better. Jircniv smirked at the thought how he never did "get anywhere" on the location of that ingot he was asked to find originally.

"No matter, he'd had a lifetime of adventure, he just craved the boring life of reading his well-written reports and spending some alone... some pretended alone time, with her. While Jircniv did not know where Red was, he knew he was close enough to read these reports, not that he could.

Back over at a large fortress built by goblins...

"I don't care when you fix it, I'm not living there anymore!" An adorable little girl with red hair and braids said in brown and black leather armor to a Troll that was repairing a ruined wall to a newly built house at Carne Fortress. While Nemu looked the same as she always did Agu took notice of the new "clothes" Ginz was wearing as he repaired the hole he made earlier. His giant troll body was covered by an immaculately well-made raven black robe with gorgeous purple trim, the giant shoulder pads that rested menacingly on his shoulders were of the same ones that the Savior of Carne was seen to wear, in looks anyway. Giant powerful enchanted gloves that did not look like they belonged of this word increased the power of this troll but also added to his "look" finally, a familiar, strange mask covered up his silly face. It was a perfect replica of the mask Ainz wore when he first came to this village, he was told anyway. At any rate, thanks to the cosmetic clothes awarded to him by Ainz Ooal Gown, Ginz Ooal Gown, the cosplay of his hero could no longer be called "crude". Nemu giggled as Agu wove to her from his position up on the wall. He would long talk about the day Carne Fortress was... inconvenience by an army of the dead.

But deep in Carne forest, there is a creature stirring awake... it's centuries-long slumber finally finishing, it had been here for so long that trees and a forest had sprung up around and onto its body... A giant "cat-like" eye opens, focuses and then the head this eye belongs to begins to move slightly...

Deep below the earth, in a city where Dwarves once lived a Quagoa looks happy for the first time in a long while...Pe Riyuro looked loving at the young Quogoa in front of him, they were all munching happily on a kind of ore that Lord Ainz had called "prismatic ore" but as it was rare, this would be the one and only batch he would be able to provide for the purposes of finding out "what your kids will be like if they eat this stuff." There came a knocking from behind him at his door, Pe Riyuro grimaced as he knew who was on the other side.

"Please enter Lady Shalltear..." He said trying to hold back his tone of disgust for this woman, this red demon. A porcelain faced vampire girl walked in, even though they were deep underground in the old dwarf city that the Quogoa had once pushed the dwarves to take shelter in, she still daintily carried an umbrella over her shoulder, she peered into the beds of the Young Quagoa.

"How very cute! You must be pleased." Shalltear said smiling, he simply returned her smile in kind.

"Do you wish to show me the place then?" Pe Riyuro asked, and he was led out of this once dwarf, now Quogoa, city to the large deep chasm that divided the underground lands in half. The very long extension bridge that the Quagoa had once destroyed in order to kill two death knights was repaired and made even stronger than before. She walked to edge and peered down it, he looked down half expecting this insane woman to just hurl him off "for fun". But instead, she spoke.

"Lord Ainz is very curious as to the kinds of monsters or treasure that might be down there..." She said in an almost spooky tone. Pointing into the black deep wound in the earth.

"We don't know what lies at the bottom of this chasm, but whatever it is..." He shook his head.

"It will be more trouble than it's worth I believe..." Pe Riyuro said peering down, the stories he had heard as a young Quogoa came to his brilliant mind. Shalltear smiled. Well, we are putting together a search team that you will help lead, I hope this is okay with you?" She asked looking at him. His eyes never left the dark black cut that ran as far as anyone knew.

"Just make sure they are strong... real strong... if what I've heard is true... not even someone like you would survive down there for too long alone." Pe Riyuro said truthfully as a particular story came to mind about a "hero from another world" who also wondered what was down there but never returned. many many years ago. Pe Riyuro frowned and reached to his back to the bottle of wine he kept at his sides at all times and took a drink.

"Don't worry, Lord Ainz has allowed me personally to pick as many members I need to fully explore this mystery," Shalltear said, while being away from Nazarick for so long would be a drag, she was eager to once again prove she could be of use. And making a search team could be fun. Far below the thinking vampire stood a terrified woman in a pitch black room, and it smelled horrible.

The room was dark, very dark but she could hear movement all around her. Clementine wrapped her arms around her naked body and shivered. She had not "won" her game of removing her tags, no the reason for her nudity had nothing to do with games. Her eyes tried to make out anything, but it was too dark and the smell was terrible, but she would find her way out of this cell when she heard a *crunch* as she took a step forward. Her attention was immediately pulled to a little man who looked like a bug that was standing in red light.

"Hello, Clementine!" The Bug King said in a friendly tone, she remained silent. He seemed displeased and spoke up.

"Hello! It is rude to not greet someone back who has greeted you." The little Bugman said, Clementine sneered at him.

"What use for manners do I have?" Clem spat as she moved to kick this little bug man across the room, but as she tried to lift her leg, there was the most... horrible of sensations that ran up her naked legs, and by the time Clementine realized what was actually happening to her, she was already clenching her stomach and falling over screaming in agony. The bug man cleaned his appendages off and as he saw his family begin their job of 'baptism'. He walked away as her screams became muffled and then stopped as the wave of bugs washed over her nude body. Why Clementine could only think of the face of a little girl she had played tag with the once name Belise... she would never know.

"Do not worry Miss Clementine... next time we speak I suspect you will have developed all kinds of good manners!" He clicked cheerfully, she would become a "good girl" as Master Mare had put it... eventually. They always did.

Ainz sat across from Demiurge, a 'chess board' laid out before them with both sides ready to play a game.

"So... as your reward for the flawless um, test score..." Ainz looked at Demiurge, he just smiled at his Lord.

"You wish to play me, at a game of chess to match your wit against mine?" Ainz asked, this was really bad when Demiurge destroys him at this game, it will be evident to the demon who the smarter of the two is. Ainz was already practicing his "well... I let you win!" speech he'd give after the game... he knew he stood no chance against Demiurge.

"I do believe it will help me to develop more if I can watch you figure out and exploit all my weaknesses Lord Ainz!" Demiurge said like a small boy getting a present.

"What will he say if I can't even claim a single piece from him?" Ainz thought to himself horrified at this, very real, aspect. But his thought was shattered when Demiurge motioned to his pieces. Ainz sat on the 'white side' so he would go first. Ainz looked at the board, he knew the game but was by no means a master, so he decided to play his first move simple.

"I'll just move a pawn... nothing too fancy about that!" Ainz thought again to himself, He reached out and moved his far-right pawn up by one square. Feeling more nervous. Demiurge's brow furrowed as he was deep in thought, Ainz could hear Demiurge mutter...

"Hmmm I see, so if Lord Ainz started off with that... then to counter I should... *mumble, mumble* hmm but then Lord Ainz could possibly do... that... hmm *mutter mutter*." Demiurge seemed very deep in thought and he had yet to move a single piece. Ainz became concerned.

"Um Demiurge, you are taking quite a long time to make a move, is everything okay?"

"Ah yes! It's just that... based on Your Majesty's first move, I have played this game over and over inside my mind many times, and for my first move I should..." Demiurge said Ainz wondered how long this game would take if he put this much thought into every move.

"For my first move, I would like to... SURRENDER!" He exclaimed shaking his head, Ainz just looked at him shocked.

"Eh?"

"Well, from the countless games I've played out in my head... it would seem no matter what strategy I adopt, Lord Ainz will develop the perfect counter and destroy me ruthlessly! As expected!" Demiurge said shaking his head in amazement, not a hint of sarcasm could be heard in his voice. Demiurge excused himself as he talked out loud to himself.

"And to think! For a moment I thought I would stand a chance against Lord Ainz... WHAT A FOOL I WAS!I should really warn the other about how truly terrifying Lord Ainz is..." Was the last thing Ainz Heard as Demiurge left the room, Ainz looked at the board, only his pawn had been moved...

"EHHHHH!?"

An in yet another area of Nazarick, under a fake blue sky...

Aura looked up at the blue sky. She had been avoiding Mare... Not because she thought he would say anything about what she had done, but because he wouldn't... she had already tried to apologize to her little brother but he just looked up from the book he was reading underneath the tree he sat under and smiled and forgave her, just like that... he really was a good boy! And yet... she had disobeyed a direct order from her creator... an impression she had when thinking of her, a voice that would remind her...

"Protect your brother Aura and be good!" The cute voice in her mind would say kindly. Aura rolled onto her side and grimaced, she was a terrible older sister... her sulking was interrupted by a figure leaning over her, blocking her sun, Aura turned to meet her 'intruder'.

"Oh... what do you want?" Aura asked annoyed by who she saw...

"Get up shrimp! We got a job to do!" Shalltear barked down to her. Aura looked at her uninterested, thinking she was lying. Shalltear frowned.

"I kinda know how yo..." She started but Aura got up quickly and began walking away in a rude manner, ignoring the typical "I know how you feel speech" that was coming her way. the vampire frowned then called out.

"Make up for it then!" Aura stopped and turned to look at Shalltear.

"When you fail someone you love... Make it up to them!" She repeated. Aura thought for a second and decided she knew what Shalltear was saying, she nodded slightly.

"Okay fine... so what this job we got to do?" Aura asked still sad.

"Wanna get some new pets?" Shalltear asked, she knew this would perk up her friend, and it did. Aura looked at for a second then her smile returned to her cute face.

"What kinds?"

THE END of part 1 (stay tuned for the next two parts)


End file.
